I’m not sure if any of our walking wounded are going to be available or not , but at the last count we had 10 players out injured?
Last season was the same, ( although it all worked out all right in the end!) I know that’s why you have a squad , but why do you think it’s happening?
Is it because the budget is tight, and we have to take more risk on signing injury prone players?
Lee and Jacko want the playing squad to be super fit, and the players just can’t handle the training and break down?
All clubs have injuries, and just have to deal with it?
Answers on a postcard please, I’m sure it will improve, but it’s blooming frustrating going into Millwalls biggest game of the season without Taylor or Williams.
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I can remember playing a whole season with two broken legs but did I complain, nope just dusted me self off and got on with it!
Huh, players today.
Some of it is due to the intensive nature of our football. Purrington, Field, Forster-Caskey...
Others are just freak accidents. Taylor...
Others like Pearce, Taylor and Solly have always had a few games out each year because of the way they play.
Then you have the likes of Kayal; Hemed, Matthews and JFC who did not do a proper pre season.
A few bad luck stories and the odd ‘run of the mill injury” like Lapslie.
not sure if I am 100% right on that, but if I am, do we think his injury was a coincidence? Would be interested in @Sage view on this.
An elite team with 25 players in the squad (I think that's the size of our squad isn't it?) can expect about 50 injuries each season, half of them minor and causing absences of less than a week, but as many as eight or nine severe and causing absences of more than four weeks.
So with us being less than half way through the season we do seem to be above average with regards to severe injuries for whatever reasons - no doubt some combination of those already posted.
The study is 10 years old but I don't suppsoe things have changed that much.
You all act like it's something new...
Firstly, the budget and facilities the medical team have is not what you would expect in the Championship. So the work that they do to get them fit and through rehabilitation is a huge credit to them. We have stepped up a couple of things, such as forming a partnership with the Cryotherapy chamber in Welling, this helps with recovery and reducing the toxins within the body. But when you compare what we have to work with to other clubs in this league, it’s miles apart. They were expecting an increased budget upon promotion, it never happened...
Secondly, the squad we assembled was late, how many of the squad played pre-season for us? For example, Kayal signed whilst injured, Hemed joined late with no real pre-season, Leko and Field the same, Matthews joined late and no pre-season, similar with Oztumer. This causes huge strain on the players we had already to be fit and firing whilst others get up to speed. I don’t think the fact that we waited until so late to have a squad of players can be overlooked, it plays a huge part throughout the season.
Thirdly, if you begin to break down individual injuries you can start to understand what has happened and been a causal effect to the amount of injuries we have. To make this easier let’s categorised things...
- Chuks Aneke done the same thing as Page in the Gillingham game in July but was back to score on his home league debut against Stoke in August. An astonishing stat for you is that the most he has played all season is 34 minutes in one game, Leeds at home. He has struggled to get to grips with the work rate and intensity of the Championship and because of this, not only is he not able to effect the game when he comes on, but he also has picked up little niggles throughout. Aneke is another player who went and spent some time with the specialised programme of rehabilitation.
- Forster-Caskey for me is one of the most obvious and easiest things to talk about. Having been out injured for the length of time he was, to expect him to be able to play in such quick succession was wrong. If people remember rightly, I said prior to the Bristol City game that I would be genuinely surprised if he played or played a full 90 minutes. For him, it’s one thing playing competitive football Saturday to Saturday, but he needed to build up that competitive match minutes gradually. Unfortunately, at that time, the situation we had at left back with Purrington out injured too, it left us with little option but to play him. As a result, that rigours of playing so soon meant that the most common injury in football occurred, hamstring.
- Jonny Williams has been fantastic for us this season and is a huge miss to the side. But why he played against Derby from the start in October still baffles me now. This for me is something Bowyer got wrong, even with him setting up Bonne for the opener. Williams had gone from starting against Wigan, Leeds, and Fulham whilst also playing around half an hour against Swansea, all before being heavily involved for Wales. To come back from this and then expect to play around an hour against Derby was the wrong call. It was too much football in too little time for someone who struggled with injuries in the past. Did it play a part in his very unfortunate injury? I genuinely believe it did. It’s unfortunate to put him in this category because prior to that, he had been fantastic with no sign of injury, but for me it was the wrong decision.
Players who have been unfit prior to signing:
- Tomer Hemed has had a horrible start to life as a Charlton player, but has it been all of his fault? Well, no not really. Having had a minor injury in pre-season and then the situation of signing for us, he missed a huge amount of fitness work with any kind of intensity. The FA and EFL didn’t help anyone. Because of this, he has pushed himself too hard too quickly trying to make up for lost time, make up for lack of fitness, and because of this, has caused himself to be in a worse situation. Hemed will be back after the international break if all things go to plan and he doesn’t over do it. There’s a lot more to come from him.
- Beram Kayal is very similar to Hemed but he didn’t have much of a pre-season due to his injury when we signed him. It took a month or so before he really could join in and has since suffered from playing catch up. I am unsure if he has been called up to the Israeli squad for this break, but I hope he hasn’t been because he really could do with a solid bit of training with the squad. Like Hemed, there’s a lot more to come from him.
- Adam Matthews again did not have a pre-season but was surprisingly in good shape all things considered. Having only just come back from a hamstring injury (there it is again) for me it was only a matter of time before something like this was going to happen. Without having the baseline fitness behind him beforehand, getting used to the intensity they train and play at was a challenge. Thankfully he is back now and this international break has come at a good time for him.
Freak / unfortunate injuries that just happen sometimes:
- Lyle Taylor is thankfully back soon, should be back for Cardiff but of course they hoped he would have been already by now but for his setback in training. His LCL injury was freak. As he explained, he passed the ball when away with Montserrat and felt it go. Whether he was on 4G surface I don’t know for certain. But it was so unfortunate and we have struggled since. Nothing anyone could do.
- Ben Purrington originally had a calf injury that he was playing through because we had no other option. Unfortunately, he actually missed a few games because he picked up a groin injury, secondary to his calf problem. Could it have been prevented? Of course. If we had another option to play at left back, Ben would have been given the time he needed to recover and maybe injuries to Forster-Caskey for example wouldn’t have happened.
- Sam Field’s knee injury was something that happens unfortunately in football. Away at Bristol City, if I remember rightly, went in for a challenge and was on the wrong side of the impact. Is there anything that the medical team could’ve done beforehand? Almost definitely not. Unfortunately he will be out for while now and that again puts pressure on the rest of the squad because it’s one less player to be able to rotate.
Overall, there’s a lot that could’ve been done differently and we might not have had as many injuries. But that’s the hand we have been dealt and hindsight is a wonderful thing.
And crisis it is, as far as I'm concerned.
As someone who's never played the beautiful game & whose worst injury was falling out of bed a couple of years ago when dreaming I was taking an inswinging corner at The Valley, these thoughts mirror my own on at least 2 of the players mentioned.
For those of our group attending the Bristol City match, JFC's start was a huge surprise. Surely his appearance on the team sheet was a match too far following his recent recovery from injury ?
And then Jonny's problem arose following hard on the heels of his intense international matches & his Duracell Bunny-like performances which for him are the norm.
2 players who have suffered in the not too distant past with injury problems & in an ideal world should be nurtured & monitored closely to ascertain when coming off the bench might be advisable as opposed to starting...
Together with those lads who, as @Sage reminded me were unfit at the time they joined our club / suffer from the lack of pre season conditioning, plus the problems encountered from pure bad luck, the number of match fit players we have is minimal for a team new to the rigours of the Championship.
But, of course, there is an additional & IMO crucial element in the situation we find ourselves currently facing, as others have mentioned.
I have used the phrase " in an ideal world " meaning " all things being equal".....
...but of course Bow, JJ, SG & the players themselves are working within a structure that is far from ideal or indeed equal when compared with the majority of the teams we face this season.
It is the weird, blinkered & egotistical world of a certain Roland Duchatelet.
It is due to the restraints he has placed on our budget that so many loan players are in our squad with the concerns that they may be recalled in January ; why the depth of our squad makes it almost impossible to give injured players that extra game or two to recover their full fitness whilst selecting a competitive matchday team ; why we may lose our main striker in the new year when the owner is not prepared to offer a good contract extension/deal ; and why our very special gaffer could himself say that enough is enough & walk away without more financial backing but predominantly without a well deserved new contract to secure his future.
Some may say it's not the time to bring the question of our ownership into this discussion , and all the time we had an almost fully fit squad & were performing wonders on the pitch beyond all expectations, maybe that was a fair comment.
But we should not forget that ours is a house built on sand all the time that RD is at the helm.
And it is at this worrying time that a pertinent reminder should not be ignored that all roads lead inevitably to Belgium.
Just sell our club.
I'm not sure Jonny's knee injury can be put down to him being overplayed, it's not as if it was a muscle strain/tear.
Jonny has played 34 times this calendar year for club and country, that’s a lot of football for someone who has never done that in his career, in not even 8 whole months, plus pre-season.
The best thing to have done when he got back from international duty last month was to put him on the bench. Okay he played 30 minutes, but he might have only played 15-20 if he came off the bench, the game would also have been stretched and he would’ve had more space.
I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that it’s the time he gets injured is the first time we start him after playing nearly 70 minutes in two games, only 3 days apart for Wales, to then start another game for us only a few days later. When he was away in September, he came off the bench against Birmingham, the following week he played his second full 90 minutes of the season.
I know the idea was been to give him 60 minutes, then 20 against Bristol City, and then start against West Brom. I just think, and thought at the time when the team sheet came out for the Derby game, that it was brave and maybe too risky.
You have to manage players individually, and on this occasion I don’t think we managed him 100%.
Firstly, the budget and facilities the medical team have is not what you would expect in the Championship. So the work that they do to get them fit and through rehabilitation is a huge credit to them. We have stepped up a couple of things, such as forming a partnership with the Cryotherapy chamber in Welling, this helps with recovery and reducing the toxins within the body. But when you compare what we have to work with to other clubs in this league, it’s miles apart. They were expecting an increased budget upon promotion, it never happened...
So overall that's where the blame lies, and we have been here before with this club, most notably the season when a young Scott Parker picked up a pre-season "niggle" and spent the first two months sidelined. In that case the Board responded to fan concerns, and the regime was upgraded. Obviously there is no chance of us repeating the pressure for change successfully with this idiot in charge.
Just re Williams..it's the old club vs country conflict. I am wondering, did the club not say to Wales, look he cannot play 90 minutes, so please don't do it? And then they went and played him 2 x 90 mins in five days...That isn't right, if Wales received such a request. And if they didn't receive such a request, why not? I cannot believe, actually, that we did not make such a request.
Of course it may be a Wales decision that'll bite them in the arse too
They need to beat Azerbaijan and Hungary to qualify automatically for Euro 2020 next week - That might not even be enough if Slovakia beat Croatia and Azerbaijan - Regardless of what happens they're all but guaranteed a spot in the Play-Offs so wont be the end of the world if they dont get top two... Had they managed Jonny a bit better themselves then they too wouldnt be losing out on him this latest International Break either
We had been closely managing his minutes all season. Often coming off at 70 mins or before. If we had 2 games in a week then 60 saturday 30 wednesday etc. This is for the players good as much as the clubs.
Surely wales have that duty of care to do the same and not overplay him.
Although as others have said and I said it at the time, having got through the wars game he should have been on the bench against derby.
GK - Amos
LB - Page
CM - Kayal, JFC, Field, Lapslie, Cullen
CAM - Williams, Aneke
ST - Taylor, Hemed
Doubtful after today - Oztumer, Deji
Barring the complete lack of defence, reckon that team would do a job haha