Injured Imps | Vital Football

Injured Imps

Will Freck ever be fit to play for us again ? The number of times we have been fed with the guff he is 'three weeks ' away has now gone on for several months, surely he needs a deadline to make himself available. I just hope Bossie will only be a short term absence we missed him big time against Oxford, several of those dreadful goals would have been avoided with him there. The sooner we get O'Connor and Bossie back the better, though maybe Appleton sees them as too old but in the short term there is no choice. Pett is training again, Hesketh signed injured, who knows about his situation. Tuesday is the ideal opportunity to get some of these onto the pitch. We cannot go on with Connolly / Morrell in midfield and being over run when you have O'Connor and Bossie who would not allow that to happen.
Appleton has got Cowleys players and has to make the best of them, they have not become poor players in four short weeks.

UTI.
 
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JT_LCFC said:
Still maintain Bossie is the best player at the club by some considerable distance.
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Bostwick’s attitude matched the Cowley’s and our strengths which allowed him to thrive, along with his ability. On a technical level he isn’t our best but attitude wise, you’re so correct it’s like saying water is wet.

Wish we had 6 or 7 Bostwicks sometimes.
 
Having as many injured players as we have, can't be an advantage that is for sure.

Obviously there is quite a lot of the background to this, that we just don't know.

Frecklington - we know nothing other than he has not played seriously for months.
Did he have an operation, is he expected to play any time soon or ever, we just do not know. Not sure what a deadline would do, he is either fit or not.

For me, he would be an ideal player at the moment, played the level, good organiser and street wise. We would be better if he were available.

Why have we got so many out? Like most things in life, when things are not going your way, they really don't.

We have had a good record of not getting injuries in recent seasons but...

Your luck can't be in all the time - we have just picked up an odd extra one of two,

Plus...

The training pitches went wrong and we trained on artificial surfaces, which contributed to strains..

and

Budget probably meant we gambled on Coker, in terms of knowing he would not be fully fit until November and we probably got Hesketh in front of other clubs, as we were prepared to take him with a short term injury.

Positive side is if our gamble pays off, we have 2 new players about to come into contention, which would be a boost... as will be the return of Pett and Bostwick.


Only a pity we have not got centre back with pace and a physically imposing athletic midfielder also about to return.
 
Pett must be very close because he went to Blackpool as an extra man.

Hesketh back in training, Bostwick sounded like he could potentially have played if needed. Freck also back but he didn't have pre-season so I'm assuming he's still 2 or 3 weeks away.
 
I think Pett, Bostwick, O'Connor and Hesketh should be all fit enough to play a part if required next weekend from what I've picked up from interviews etc.
 
Frecklington (34): injured against Stevenage on 16 February and has played just 28 minutes in the seven months since. Had an operation during the summer.

O'Connor (32 next week): had an operation during the summer as the final stage of his ACL treatment, but there is no suggestion from anyone that he is injured currently.

Bostwick (31): injured during the first week of pre-season training (first week of July) on the Mottram Hall pitches and has not been fit since; is still not training properly.

Coker (30): injured when signed, ACL in October 2018, has not played since.

Pett (27): back injury during early pre-season, played sporadically in friendlies; injured again against Nottingham Forest on 29 July and has not played since.

Hesketh (23): injured when signed, has not been named in a match day squad yet.

Is there a connection between age and injury? Whatever the answer to that is, six injured players at the same time will have an impact - put another way, that is one quarter of our squad unavailable. Four of those injured players have yet to appear on a team sheet.

At 25, we have one of the smallest squads in League One (I think only Burton Albion have fewer players than us). With two more out on loan, we have been operating with an effective first team squad of 19 including two goalkeepers. Only 16 have appeared in a league match, which means that 9 have not for a variety of reasons. That is a large number of passengers to date. Perhaps we are doing alright with such a small working squad.
 
Scotimp said:
Frecklington (34): injured against Stevenage on 16 February and has played just 28 minutes in the seven months since. Had an operation during the summer.

O'Connor (32 next week): had an operation during the summer as the final stage of his ACL treatment, but there is no suggestion from anyone that he is injured currently.

Bostwick (31): injured during the first week of pre-season training (first week of July) on the Mottram Hall pitches and has not been fit since; is still not training properly.

Coker (30): injured when signed, ACL in October 2018, has not played since.

Pett (27): back injury during early pre-season, played sporadically in friendlies; injured again against Nottingham Forest on 29 July and has not played since.

Hesketh (23): injured when signed, has not been named in a match day squad yet.

Is there a connection between age and injury? Whatever the answer to that is, six injured players at the same time will have an impact - put another way, that is one quarter of our squad unavailable. Four of those injured players have yet to appear on a team sheet.

At 25, we have one of the smallest squads in League One (I think only Burton Albion have fewer players than us). With two more out on loan, we have been operating with an effective first team squad of 19 including two goalkeepers. Only 16 have appeared in a league match, which means that 9 have not for a variety of reasons. That is a large number of passengers to date. Perhaps we are doing alright with such a small working squad.
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Whats the position with Sam Habergam ? I thought he was out of contract , is he still here?
 
Mr Chad said:
Whats the position with Sam Habergam ? I thought he was out of contract , is he still here?
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I believe we are helping him to return to some kind of fitness, but he is not contracted to us as a player anymore. Strange that the club has not offered any official comment on it, though.
 
Scotimp said:
I believe we are helping him to return to some kind of fitness, but he is not contracted to us as a player anymore. Strange that the club has not offered any official comment on it, though.
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He is at every home game. He sits behind the press area amongst the analysts and youth players so my best guess he has a job of sorts.
 
Pett and Hesketh were at Blackpool and took part in the pre match training warm up.
The signing of Hesketh with an injury was understandable as it was a short term hamstring injury and looks as though he will be available soon.
Coker, however, looks a strange one and must be considered a big risk.
 
johnolbe said:
Pett and Hesketh were at Blackpool and took part in the pre match training warm up.
The signing of Hesketh with an injury was understandable as it was a short term hamstring injury and looks as though he will be available soon.
Coker, however, looks a strange one and must be considered a big risk.
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It is. However, with a limited budget, getting a league 1 standard left footed defender to join on the cheap is probably not that easy, especially when the first choice never misses a game. Not wishing to tempt fate but Toffolo is always fit and on form.

If Coker is soon fit, we have all of a sudden got good left back cover.

It might become a big risk that has paid off?

The Cowleys took some risks in terms of squad quantity to get quality. This is a logical extension of this. Better to have a L1 quality cover for 7months of the season, than L2 quality cover for 9 months.
 
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Not knowing any contract details for Coker I do wonder if it's one based more on a pay as you play basis than a standard deal.
He does also cover centre defence as well so as Chimp says it's a gamble but one which if it works will be a good one
 
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