Despite hammer strikes, Stoke City’s injury woes are ‘not a curse.’
Clayton Wood provides an update as Stoke City prepares to face Southampton without six senior players.
There is hope within Stoke City that the injury blows that have fallen on the club in the first few weeks of the season are different from the injury curse that has befallen the club in prior years.
Michael Rose (groin) and Lynden Gooch (hamstring) join Ryan Mmaee (hamstring), Andre Vidigal (ankle), Tyrese Campbell, and Enda Stevens (calf) in the treatment room ahead of tonight’s Championship showdown. The first two injuries sustained in Saturday’s triumph at Bristol City are thought to be minor, and most are expected to recuperate in time for the forthcoming international break.
Campbell could be out for a few months, while Rose’s absence illustrates why Neil was eager to bring in a fourth center-back during the transfer window. He currently has two: Ben Wilmot and Luke McNally. Mmaee and Vidigal have no genuine history of injuries, so there’s no cause to worry about them in the future, especially as they adjust to the frantic world of the Championship.
Indeed, an especially tough fixture list could explain why there is currently a backlog for physios.
“It’s too many games through quick succession,” said Alex Neil. “We’ve got seven games in the bounce, seven games in 21 days between international breaks, which is ridiculous, especially with the intensity of the Championship now. I believe, and I said this at the start of the season, that this is probably the best Championship I’ve seen. By that I mean there’s a collection of really good sides. “Bielsa’s Leeds were a great team, my Norwich team were a great team, Karanka’s Middlesbrough were a great team, Jokanovic’s Fulham were a great team, Nuno’s Wolves were a great team. I think this season you’ve got a collection of really, really strong teams. There are very few, if any, that are particularly weaker than everybody else.
“If you ask the lads openly, and I’ve had open discussions with a number of them, they can’t believe the pace, the speed of the game.” They describe it to me as follows: when they had previously played, the ball moves from side to side, whereas the Championship moves from end to end. The game is always played both ways.
“If you come from Basel, as Wouter (Burger) did, or Ferencvaros, as Ryan did, they were in dominant teams.” There were perhaps two or three difficult clubs to face, but for the remainder of the games, they passed and passed and passed until they broke the deadlock. Whether you’re playing the top of the league or the bottom of the league, the game will be played at full speed for 95 or 100 minutes.
“And that’s another factor about picking up more injuries, that the games are lasting longer.”
Stoke were one of just five Championship clubs to advance to the third round of the Carabao Cup, which meant a midweek journey to Bournemouth while other teams enjoyed a rare week off. The players and supporters have also been on the road, visiting Ipswich, Norwich, Millwall, and Bristol City.
“The fact that we’ve had a couple of wins in cup ties has meant that we’ve played as many games as we possibly could have done to this point – and it’s not like we’ve had an easy ride in those ties either,” Neil explained. We had West Brom at home, which we obviously wanted to win, and then we had Bournemouth away, with all the travel that entails.
“Arguably we’ve had the worst possible fixtures that you could have picked in terms of keeping players fresh and ready for league matches.”
