Sam talked today about needing to get his full squad available.
At the moment we are again top of the PhysioRoom.Com Injury table with a full 10 injuries. When you see the next teams on this list are Arsenal. Chelsea, Manchester United and Sunderland with just 6 injuries you wonder what is going on at Newcastle still.
Certainly our injury record has not improved much this season so far.
David Rozehnal – just added to the official injury list
Both Rozehnal and Owen are now said to be doubtful for Sunday’s game and if things don’t improve within a couple of months we need to find out why we are still having all these injuries.
This is what Sam said today:
“It was nice to get Habib (Beye) and Abdoulaye (Faye) on the field on Monday night,”
“Abdoulaye has played in the Premiership for two or three years with me at Bolton so he is OK to come straight in.–Habib Beye has to find his way in English football and that could take a little bit more time. He got a little taste of what the Premier League is about on Monday night against Derby, albeit a very disappointing one, and he will be important to us in the next few weeks.â€
“It’s important we get our squad back together. We need Mark Viduka, Damien Duff, Jose Enrique and even Celestine Babayaro to be fit.â€
“We need a full squad available, especially with the week coming up where we have three games in six days and our resources are stretched.”
Viduka has always been injury prone and he’s always had problems with his hamstrings, so unless things improve with Mark the best we are going to get out of him is half a season at best. Mark is said to be hopeful of making the United line up when West Ham visit St James’ Park on Sunday. We are also a little worried about Owen because when he has had a niggle it has usually kept him out the next game – so we’ll just have to wait and see on that one.
We said at the beginning of the season that keeping our injuries down would be important this season, which is why we are keep checking a check on how we are doing. Of course it’s still very early in the season and a big improvement is still possible.
Here’s the current injury table:
D Rozehnal Calf/Shin Injury 23rd Sep 07 slight doubt M Owen Groin Strain 23rd Sep 07 slight doubt J Enrique Hamstring Injury 23rd Sep 07 doubtful M Viduka Hamstring Injury 23rd Sep 07 doubtful Emre Calf/Shin Injury 23rd Sep 07 doubtful P Ramage ACL Knee Injury Apr 08 S Carr Hamstring Injury 7th Oct 07 C Babayaro Groin Strain 7th Oct 07 J Barton Metatarsal Fracture 7th Oct 07 D Duff Sprained Ankle 3rd Nov 07
The last column refers to the next game on Sunday and their likely availability. It’s also true that 5 of these injuries end on Sunday – so that’s good.
On the list of course are a number of players like Duff, Babayaro, Emre and Carr who have been injured a lot during their time at Newcastle. We still think Sam will let Babayaro and Carr go in January and maybe even Emre, depending on how Emre plays before then. But it’s true we do need Emre’s creativity in the middle of the park right now.
Any ideas why we still have all these injuries?
Comments very welcome welcome.
11 comments so far
yemozone
Sep 21, 2007 at 9:38 AM
Comment #1I dont understand whaz causing this injuries for our players.I’m thinking maybe it is the training infrastructures we have at the club.
The best thing Big sam can do to solve some of this injury problem is to cash in on the injury prone players in january.Plyers like Owen,Babayaro,Carr and Emre.
What do u think guys.
Lamesley Mag
Sep 21, 2007 at 9:40 AM
Comment #2The list includes regular sick-note persons such as Babayaro, Owen, Carr, Emre and Duff. Viduka also missed several games for Boro, so his injuries are expected.
We need to offload; Babayaro, Carr, Emre and possibly even Owen and Duff if the right offers come along as they miss to many games through injury.
Looking forward to Enrique’s recovery and given his chance as it releases the Zog…..
Dave Atkinson
Sep 21, 2007 at 9:57 AM
Comment #3Get rid of Owen – I’ve had enough of the promise/optimism. As long as he’s here there’s a noose hanging over Martins. I’d keep Emre and offload Carr, Babayaro and Ameobi (along with Owen of course).
Whumpie
Sep 21, 2007 at 10:05 AM
Comment #4BSA has the right idea – lots of focus on nutrition, conditioning and even studying each player’s technique to look for ways to smooth things out. Just ask Gary Speed, who may be turning grey, but still plays every match – and he puts that down to Big Sam getting him doing a few hours of ashtanga yoga a week.
Trouble is, all this stuff takes months to work. We just have to wait and see if the list is shorter at the end of the season. Nothing else to do.
t-g-w
Sep 21, 2007 at 10:05 AM
Comment #5Don’t understand how you can want to sell Owen after the form he has been in. One minute everyone on here loves him, the next you want to sell him. It hasn’t been confirmed that he’s actually injured for Sunday’s game anyway. Yes Martins is a good player, but Owen is better.
Dimitri
Sep 21, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Comment #6I think it is down to past aproaches at newcastle yes. I think it will improve with Sam’s new techniques, but this still needs time. Players’ bodies will not change or adapt to these techniques over night. I predict that for this first season things will improve gradually. Over the years though Newcastle will become like Bolton and have few injuries…
I say get rid of Baba and car for now. Waste of space and time and money. We need Emre and Duff back big time! and playing well…
I also don’t know why we did not go for a 4-3-3 against Derby with Owen, Viduka, and Martins up front. we could have blitzed them like we did Bolton and we could have been lookng rozy now in 4th.
Pete
Sep 21, 2007 at 11:47 AM
Comment #7Is the training ground un even or something.
We heard all this stuff about Sams awesome backroom staff – did they actully come in the end as no one seems to have mentioned it.
Has Mort confirmed that we are getting a new training ground yet?
evil dick
Sep 21, 2007 at 12:52 PM
Comment #8I think given time the injuries will clear up, it will take time for the players to adjust to BS methods.
Dingo
Sep 21, 2007 at 2:38 PM
Comment #9just as a matter of point, i have caught Alan Oliver twice saying that Viduka has been injured since half time at the Wigan match. My god what type of ‘dedicated’ team journo fails to note that Viduka scored a geat goal against the team he signed from 2 matches after the Wigan game… shame on you Alan… my lass knows more than you about football and she hates it.
leo
Sep 21, 2007 at 3:30 PM
Comment #10just been up having ma dinner after uni in my car along from ponteland, at the blagdon turn off, who would pass me on the turn off but mike ashley in a luxury taxi, followed by some more luxury cars so they may be looking at new places for the training ground, to the person asking about darsley park where nufc train, it is true the ground is hard and uneven, i know its certainly hard because our school ust to travel there from gosforth for games lessons before newcastle bought it.
leo
Sep 21, 2007 at 3:31 PM
Comment #11we trained there because the school did not have any grounds