Tuesday 27 October 2009

Injury Update 27/10/09



 From football365.com:-

We do seem to be mentioning Alberto Aquilani rather a lot in our injury updates - and it's not only because it gives us a chance to muse on his missus. But those times are coming to an end as the Italian looks set to come off the bench for Liverpool against Arsenal on Wednesday night.

"He will be with us. He is improving his fitness, so he's in the squad." said Benitez. "He cannot start at this moment but he will be there and maybe we can give him some minutes. If it's possible we will try to use him."

Steven Gerrard should be back for Saturday's trip to Fulham. Benitez told Liverpoolfc.tv: "Gerrard will not be available for this game but he is improving, so hopefully he can be ready for Saturday."

Martin Kelly (ankle) and Albert Riera (hamstring) are also out, but there is better news for Benitez in that both Andrea Dossena and Sotirios Kyrgiakos could feature.

Benitez added: "Dossena has been training and will be in the squad. It was one or two small things with him.

"Kyrgiakos has been training. We had bad news when everyone was talking about him being out for six months after the internationals. It wasn't that bad because now he's training and he's available too."

Lining up on the opposite side to Aquilani will be Samir Nasri, who is yet to make a first-team appearance for Arsenal this season after breaking his leg in July. He will be joined by Lukasz Fabianski, who has missed the start of the season - and the chance to deputise for Manuel Almunia - with a knee injury.

But before Arsenal and Liverpool meet at the Emirates on Wednesday night, Manchester United travel to Barnsley. Darren Fletcher could feature for United after recovering from an ankle injury, while Gabriel Obertan will finally make his United debut after joining in the summer with a back problem.

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes will be without a number of key players for the Carling Cup match against Scunthorpe on Wednesday night.

Kolo Toure (heel), Martin Petrov and Wayne Bridge (both knee) have failed to recover from injury while Roque Santa Cruz remains doubtful with tonsilitis.

Tottenham have their own problems too, with Jonathan Woodgate and Aaron Lennon joining Ledley King, Luka Modric and Giovani Dos Santos on the sidelines.

"Jonathan took a bad blow to the head and he's gone for a scan today to make sure he hasn't fractured his cheekbone. His face is very swollen and we have to make sure he's okay. Obviously he's not available," said Harry Redknapp.

"Aaron has also gone for a scan to see what damage he's done to his ankle, hopefully it's not to bad and he'll recover."

"We've one or two more out as well - Ledley's still not fit, Luka and Gio - and Jermain is suspended."

Redknapp did add that King is hopeful of being fit in time for the weekend's clash with Arsenal.

There's some rare good news for Everton, who have included Yakubu in their squad to face Spurs in the Carling Cup after he recovered from a bruised heel.

Johnny Heitinga and Tim Cahill also travelled despite picking up knocks at the weekend so Everton's injured list has been reduced to just ten names.

Bolton striker Johan Elmander is set to return for Bolton in their Carling Cup fourth-round tie against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night. The Swede has been missing with a hamstring injury, but he is now back in full training and should be available for the match at Stamford Bridge.

The good news for Sunderland fans is that Darren Bent's injury is not as bad as first feared. He will miss the Carling Cup clash with Aston Villa but should be fit for the weekend.

"We hope Darren will be okay for Saturday, but he had a bad knock," Bruce was quoted as saying by Sky Sports. "He twisted and wobbled everything. It was close to being serious, but we don't think it is, thankfully."

So a mixture of news & I'm sure there'll be much more to consider after the Carling Cup games this week.

I'm still trying to decide whether to stick with mostly double gamers for Week 10, or back single gamers to perform. My experience tells me to pick double gamers, but until Yahoo 100% confirm a double week either by updating the fixtures or via the Offical Blog it makes me feel a tiny bit uneasy, even though I'm 99.99% sure it WILL be a double week.

I've been  re-reading the latest set of rules on Yahoo & they repeatedly state that a "game week" runs from the deadline on a Saturday to the following Saturday, so we can be pretty confident that the "missing" West Ham v Aston Villa fixture is mearly an oversight which they'll correct in the next day or 2.

If I do go with single gamers then Blackburn's squad are falling apart with Swine Flu, so having a bunch of United players could be the way the to go instead. Rooney, Nani & Giggs are all on my radar.

Blog League 6 is filling up quickly so if you don't have a space in one of the leagues yet then be quick as this is definitely the final one. Details below:

Group ID: 23246
Password: yahoo


Week 10 Player Picks will be up tomorrow.

Cheers,
AM

25 comments:

Naning said...

Don't forget the french leage postponed a game because one of the teams had the swine flu. There's a chance FA will do the same.

Ruki said...

There is a news over soccernet regarding that issue here and it doesnt look like FA favors postponing matches.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=690107&sec=england&cc=4716

billycare said...

any news about billy??

Anonymous said...

Fergie to drop Rio?

Anonymous said...

aquilani please dont return so soon, i'll miss your wife.

shadow said...

hopefully someone can help me -

i'm thinking of switching ballack/milner (for 20.69)

to one of many combos between ballack, milner, reid, dunn and boateng (if i get boateng i can upgrade my D a little).

any suggestions? i know milner has a double week but people are saying he hasn't been performing well.

statistically, dunn's the best choice but i don't particularly like him against chelsea

reid's pretty consistent and has a good matchup, and boateng's been doing well and has a decent home game...

any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

dunne has swine flu

Bull said...

Hey guys would Michael Brown of Portsmouth be back from suspension this week?

Bradley said...

@Mark: Michael Brown was sent off for accumulating two yellows, which results in only a one-match ban. Unless I'm mistaken, he should be available again.

greginho said...

i just made up my mind, i am not going with agbonlahor. i have never had any luck picking him up, so i think i am going with carlton cole, diamanti and drogba. cole is a better player and is more consistent. aston villa play 2 away matches at everton and west ham.

west ham at sunderland should be a shoot out. all but one of sunderland's home games have had lots of goals. that one game was 1-0 over liverpool. west ham has not been shut out for 6 league games.

i am so disillusioned, right now with villa. i can't see myself putting milner in who i would have, at first. the only person i might pick up for villa would be friedel for given or collins for wilkinson.

i am amazed that noone is talking about cole or were many of you keeping that a secret.

Bradley said...

Dunne played for Villa today in the Carling Cup.

Anonymous said...

diamanti did more than cole even though he only played 45 minutes. i think having diamanti and cole would be havin too many eggs in a basket.. especially 2 forwards. maybe u should go with rodallega against portsmouth or rooney against a weakened blackburn team instead?

and it's dunn that has swine flu, not dunne. they are 2 different players.

any united fans out there who think johnny evans would start now that vidic and gary neville aren't playing?

JT

Bradley said...

David Dunn *had* swine flu. He played 20 minutes today for Blackburn against Peterborough.

Anonymous said...

week 10 (deadline: Sat 31 Oct 8.00PM SGT, for games Oct 31 to Nov 6)

is it mean double games is on? in week 10 fixtures don't have the game (w.ham vs villa) though...

Kellz said...

@Greginho: porbably b/c carlton cole just isn't that great when you could field Rooney, Drogs, Diamanti, Gabby, Bent or HRod. Plus he has committed the most fouls for any striker and possibly any player so far.

Ban said...

How do u all think about Rodallega?
Portsmouth v Wigan

Anonymous said...

@JT

I am of the impression that Vidic is only serving a 1 match suspension for the 2 yellow cards and has served it out in the Carling Cup match against Barnsley? Please correct me if I am wrong but I think he is available for the game against Blackburn.

Regardless, there is talk that Rio will be dropped because of his dismal form and Evans would likely be the prime candidate to replace him!

Bradley said...

A suspension is served for the next competitive domestic match whether league or cup, so Vidic's one-match ban should've been served by the Carling Cup tie vs. Barnsley (even though he probably wouldn't have played anyway).

Fergie's not happy with Rio, although he might just be performing his patented mind games/motivational techniques.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5654692,00.html

Speaking of Fergie, he may have a touchline ban in his near future for questioning referee Alan Wiley's fitness (and teaching me the phrase "fit as butcher's dogs" in the process).

Ian Sanderson said...

Physioroom has Bullard returning this weekend against Burnley, but is it too big a risk.
Giggs for a similar price?

Bull said...

@ Bradley

Noted mate thanks

Anonymous said...

The midweek game on Nov 5, West Ham v Aston Villa has now been included and confirmed for YFF Week 10 fixtures.

Anonymous said...

Correction: Nov 5 should read Nov 4 (Nov 5 is based on my time zone :D)

Anonymous said...

I need help with a tough decision:
Right now I have Rosicky in midfield, though I want Milner instead. I thought about downgrading Heitinga for Sonko in order to do it.
Should I stay with Heitinga+Rosicky (or Hunt instead of Rosicky), or should I get Milner the double-gamer along with Sonko?
I'm thinking about this a lot this days, so I'll really appriciate any help from AM or the readers...

SF

Anonymous said...

@SF: I prefer Sonko-Milner, cause I have them both too ;)

I would like to know whether MRich will start during this week's match or not? Is Zabaleta coming back? thanks....

Dare to Devil

Anonymous said...

How do u know Sonko's going to start? I don't think that's a risk I'm willing to take.

JT

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