Knee injuries
Gareth Barry will continue in central midfield after the double blow of losing both Frank Lampard and Owen Hargreaves struck England. Lampard returned to Chelsea’s Cobham training ground over the weekend, whilst it was only today that a fitness test ruled Canadian-born Hargreaves out of tomorrow’s tie with Russia.
It’s a massive bonus for Barry, whose close friendship with Steven Gerrard enabled him to form an effective partnership with the Liverpool midfielder on Saturday.
The big doubt remains over who will partner Michael Owen upfront. Emile Heskey impressed against Israel, but with classier opposition less likely to be intimidated by the Wigan man’s awesome physical power, McClaren may opt for the superior guile of the wonderfully ironically-named Crouch.
Either way, it remains a must-win game for England. No amount of injuries will excuse failure to qualify for Euro 2008.
At the age of 34, persistent knee injuries have finally called time on the career of Ole Gunner Solskjaer. His father, Oyvind, confirmed his retirement to the Norwegian press this morning:
He would have liked to stay on and was hoping for a 100% recovery, but something has happened with his knee which made it impossible for him to continue.
This final complication, after his most recent operation in June, has obviously proved a bridge too far for a player whose career looked over as much as two years ago. He made a remarkable comeback last season to score 11 goals as United romped to the Premiership title - a fitting end to a distinguished career.
United fans are understandably moved by this news, but they’ve had plenty of time to prepare for it - it can hardly be considered a surprise. The question is, will Ferguson buy to replace him? Wayne Rooney and Louis Saha are both still in The Treatment Room, so could Fergie turn to one of Nicolas Anelka or Obafemi Martins to boost his striking options?
With only a few days left in the transfer window, we’ll soon find out.
Ledley King is a fantastic footballer. When fit, he’s a shoe-in for pretty much every England squad. He’s an outstanding centre-half, and a solid holding midfielder. But his knee is made of polystyrene.
It’s a genuine shame. One of the most talented defenders of his generation has missed a huge amount of football due to chronic knee problems, and has once again been forced to admit there is no timescale upon a possible return.
No wonder Spurs are fishing around Curtis Davies.
Alex Ferguson described the fact that Scholes injury is not serious as “100% good news”.
What was feared to be possible ligament damage was in fact just bruising on the cartilage. Scholes is likely to miss United’s opening two games (the Community Shield against Chelsea and the home fixture against Reading), but will be free to return after that.
The fate of Owen Hargreaves remains slightly less clear. The £17m midfielder is suffering from knee tendinitis, and Ferguson is uncertain as to when he will finally be able to make his United debut. The manager said:
It’s becoming an irritant rather than a big problem.
Which, amusingly, is how most people regard Owen Hargreaves.
PeakFootball.com can exclusively reveal that Cesc Fabregas was flown home from Arsenal’s Austrian training camp last night with a knee injury. Whilst the extent of the problem remains unclear, Arsenal were concerned enough to send Cesc packing for scans in London this morning. It is expected that Arsene Wenger will reveal the nature of the problem after tonight’s friendly with FC Salzburg.
Still only 20, Fabregas has managed to steer clear of major injuries so far in his short career. Arsenal fans will be hoping that this is just a scare in what has been a troublesome pre-season period.
UPDATE: Scans for Fabregas brought positive news, and he should return to training within a week.
West Ham are either very brave or very stupid. After the disastrous blow of losing Julien Fabuert, the Hammers moved to replace him with Sweden’s international captain, Freddie Ljungberg. The problem? Ljungberg is arguably one of the most injury-prone players in the Premier League.
Internal bleeding in his knee, bruised ribs, back problems, foot injuries, and various hip problems (including one caused by a belatedly infected tattoo); all of these have become familiar to Ljungberg in the last few years. West Ham have replaced a crock with an injury timebomb.
There’s no doubt that on his day, Ljungberg is an excellent player. But investing £3m and astronomical wages (the English press reported £60k p/week, whilst the Swedish went for a ludicrous £103k) in a player who seems to have missed at least ten league games in every season of his career is a very significant gamble indeed.
What do you reckon: crock or gold?
Of the many possibilities that this headline implies, the sole truth is that Alex Ferguson has confirmed that Ji-Sung Park may be out until 2008 with a knee problem.
It was back in April when United decided to send Park to the United States to be operated on by Dr. Richard Steadman - the man credited with saving the careers of Alan Shearer and Michael Owen. Ferguson said at the time:
There was an option to send him to Sweden or America and we decided to send him to the States to see Richard Steadman in Colorado. There was no clear reason for the injury and we couldn’t get to the bottom of it. So we decided we should send him to the best in the world.
Steadman enjoys a tremendous reputation in the world of sport, and will be the featured subject of a future piece here on peakfootball.com. United will be hoping his amazing record continues with Park’s rehabilitation in time for next year’s title run-in.
In the first full weekend of pre-season, two top Premiership sides suffered significant injury scares.
In Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over north London rivals Barnet, Jason Puncheon’s late tackle on Denilson led to the 19-year-old being stretched off with what appeared to be a serious knee injury. However, scans revealed that Denilson should be able to return to training in “a few days”.
Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Mexican outfit Club America was notable for the absence of not just Ashley Cole but also Wayne Bridge, who will miss up to three months with a fractured pelvis. It’s a good job Chelsea moved to sign Tal Ben Haim as back-up - in Cole and Bridge they have two players about as likely to get injured as a man running over a black cat which is standing under a ladder.
There was better news for fans of West Ham, who witnessed the return of Dean Ashton after twelve months out with a broken ankle. The powerful forward played 45 minutes of the friendly victory over Dagenham & Redbridge, and admitted after the game that he had doubted whether this moment would ever come:
“There were times when I thought I might not get back, so I’m really going to enjoy this season. It was an absolute joy to be out there playing, it has been a long, tough year and I’m glad to be back.”
He’s not alone in his fears - a broken ankle can be an absolutely devastating injury. Still, the return of Abou Diaby from this horrific blow should give Ashton hope as he takes his latest step on the comeback trail. Next stop, England?
Martin Jol is sweating on the fitness of £10m signing Gareth Bale, after the Welshman limped out of his debut match against St. Patrick’s Athletic in Dublin.
Bale, who had impressed the Irish crowd with his set piece delivery, was replaced with nine minutes remaining, clutching his thigh as he departed.
Tottenham now face a nervous wait for the scan results - it was a lack of left-sided players that prompted Bale’s signing in the first place. A superficial blow would mean that he’d miss only a couple of days training, but even the slightest tear in the muscle fibres would force him to miss two or three weeks.
Spurs are as yet undeterred in their transfer dealings, and in Kevin-Prince Boateng have targetted a player whose injury problems are almost as bad as his name. At just 20 years old, Boateng has already undergone two major knee surgeries, and there’s even talk that he may struggle to pass a medical. More as and when we get it.
