Luton away 21/11/20

[seventwo]

The start of a tough run.
Will we have enough players back to cope?

[robinrover]

I think we should have all but evans and travis back.
Fingers crossed on kaminski.

[AucklandRover]

I think we should have all but evans and travis back.
Fingers crossed on kaminski.

I hope that's right, Robin.
And Dack only a month away too!

[champs95]

I hope that's right, Robin.
And Dack only a month away too!

I know I get told off for my negativity. And I get why.
My issue is, we only haven't suffered more injuries because we have not played.

Can anyone name one game this season we haven't lost on average one player? I can't.
Then during the week in between games, we lose 2 or 3 players to Covid.

We have had an appalling record with injuries. Recovery from injuries in well over 18 months now.
It falls away from coincidence into something more concerning when you get as many as we do.
While it looks rosey now, once everyone returns, give it a weekend game, then a midweek game, we will be looking at the loss of another 5 or 6 first team players. Then we will lose another 5 or 6 Covid. Because that has happened every week all season and into last season.

Factor into that, we also lose players like Williams for a spell who didn't even play a game but caught Covid away with Ireland it all starts to build up.
Is it all down to bad luck?

Lenihan won't play for Ireland in the next game he has been called up to. But he will go. He will be away. He will put himself at risk.Why? For a friendly in Ireland he wont even start the match. Its all a bit of a joke.

[champs95]

I think we should have all but evans and travis back.
Fingers crossed on kaminski.

Williams confirmed as missing on Sat.
Ayala is still missing on Sat, from that one half game.
Holtby is confirmed as missing on Sat. Why should we stand between him and him being back in Germany every other week. Its not like we pay his wages or anything. He is another out from Sat's important game. I think he had Covid about a month ago, so is probably still 'recovering' bless him.
Kaminski is only 50/50. That's a concern.
Nyambe got injured in the ****ing warm up for Namibia. He is OUT. All that way to get injured. At a time we have so many injuries. Perfect timing that Ryan, hope it was worth it.

We still have over half a team out. So we aren't just missing all the long term injuries. We have a whole team out injured with various nothing things.

And instead of our club captain being around the club and improving his appalling start to our season, he decided going to sit on Eire's bench for an international friendly and not playing again was a better idea.

Its a bit of a shambles.

[robinrover]

I wouldn't be surprised to see dack on the bench sooner than a month.

[champs95]

I wouldn't be surprised to see dack on the bench sooner than a month.

Just offering my humble opinion.
I feel anyone believing Dack will return to anything like the same player will be severely disappointed. I most certainly hoping Rovers are not pinning all their hopes on this.
It will be 12 months since he last kicked a ball.
He will face 6 months of small niggling injuries you get after such a long lay off.
I have seen world class players such as Shearer unable to return to being the same player. Lots of players struggle to return after missing a whole year. He had a terrible injury.
If he had a chance of fully recovering, he would actually have returned 2 months ago.
The club are not saying it, but something HAS gone wrong with his knee. He is way behind where he should be.

Is is heart in this anymore? He put himself under undue pressure agreeing to star alongside his Mrs in that pathetic TV programme. Is he good enough to have that distraction. For me no.
If he was solely concentrating on his career and the club, he would not be filling his life up with TV shows.
You do that when you retire.

You simply do not agree to this TV distraction midway through a career threatening injury.

I fear if he loses a yard of pace, which he will, then he will never be the same player. If he attitude is not 100% he will not recover.
Far better footballers than Dack have never quite made the recovery back into football. So I am doubting what if any, impact this lad will have. And it worries me that fans are expecting the same Bradley Dack to pull a shirt on in early Dec and start finding the same form as 12 months ago.
He had a terrible injury. He has been out alot longer than they expected. His heart will not be in this due to other non footballing commitments. And we have likely lost one of only a few potential sources of revenue.

I am happy to be proven wrong here.

[seventwo]

Dack played for 45 minutes in a friendly against Sheffield United today

[champs95]

Dack played for 45 minutes in a friendly against Sheffield United today

his latest TV show aired last night too. I just hope he is 100% focused on his football career.

[AucklandRover]

Champs - I think we all know the dangers of such injuries, in respect to the long-term.
To supply a more optimistic note, though, at a much lower level of sport, I have a personal story which might help.
As a result of a very dangerous tackle on a rugby pitch, I tore two ligaments at the same time in my left knee. (Neither was completely severed, luckily). I was 32 at the time. By a fortunate coincidence, my surgeon was also the doctor for Ipswich Town FC. After three months in a full plaster, I was given various opinions, including several that I would/should never play again. Being pig-headed, I chose to listen only to that surgeon because he said I was no more at risk of doing it again than anyone else.
I asked him what it would take to return to fitness, and he replied, "Bloody hard work and patience."
He also said I would know I was ready when I could touch my bum with my heel. (It was all much less scientific in those days!).
The last inch took a long time!
Anyway, I was back on the pitch in eight months, and I went on playing rugby until I was 47. For much of that period, I played rugby on Saturday and football on Sunday (not to mention cricket twice a weekend, all through the summer!).
What I'm really saying is that the impact is different for different people.
I have never had a day's trouble with that knee in all the years since. And, of, course, Dack will have had much better treatment than me.