Tuesday 17 November 2009

Injury Update 17/11/09


Firstly, the injury news from football365.com
Sounds as if Dimi Berbatov's knee injury is more serious than first suspected.

The Manchester United striker has been struggling with the injury for a while, and it forced him to miss the recent defeat at Chelsea.

It's now been revealed that he is suffering from fluid on the knee and an operation is a possibility.

An 'Old Trafford insider' is quoted by The Sun as saying: "It is causing quite a bit of discomfort, which is worrying" while a concurring Independent declares, in rather greater depth, that 'the knock Dimitar Berbatov received in United's 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers on 31 October has exacerbated a fluid on the knee condition, which may require surgery. The striker is with the Bulgarian squad for tomorrow's friendly in Malta and may play a part, and there are hopes he might be nursed through his injury.'

Steven Gerrard has declared himself fit for Liverpool's must-not-lose fixture with Manchester City.

He's also admitted that he really shouldn't have played against Birmingham last week.

"I felt very tired after the game, as I wasn't really ready to return and I'd done very little training in the three weeks beforehand.

"It took me two or three days to recover from that game but I have spent the past week doing strengthening work and I'm feeling a lot better now. I'm looking forward to the weekend. There's no mental hurdle to cross. It's a case of so far so good and the aim now is to make sure I get a good week's training under my belt so I'm ready for the game with City."

Gerrard could be joined by Daniel Agger and Glen Johnson for that game.

Rafa Benitez says: "Agger is okay. He had a small problem with his back but he's training. It was a very good decision from Denmark's manager (to withdraw Agger) because he is much better now. I think he'll be okay for the weekend.

"Johnson has been training. Not full sessions, but training, so hopefully he'll be okay for the weekend too."

But the bad news for Pool is that David Ngog broke his nose whilst on France Under-21 duty. And no, he didn't do throwing it himself to the ground. The Daily Mail says that it actually happened when he was 'hit in the face by a ball during a training session on Sunday'.

But Benitez says: "We know Ngog has broken his nose but it's not serious. I am not sure yet because we haven't seen him but I think he'll be okay, it won't be serious."

Things are clearing up at Chelsea - with Ashley Cole coming through a training session on Monday that has been described as 'intense' by the Evening Standard.

There are still doubts over John Terry (ankle), Didier Drogba (rib) and Michael Ballack (knee), but none of the trio have been ruled out of the game against Wolves this weekend.

The number of Arsenal players currently injured is now up to 11 after Abou Diaby pulled out of the France squad for the second leg of their play-off against the Republic with Ireland.

It's not known yet how serious the injury is.

For the record, the other ten Arsenal players currently listed as crocked by the club are: Robin van Persie, Nicklas Bendtner, Theo Walcott, Denilson, Armand Traore, Gael Clichy, Lukasz Fabianski, Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere and Johan Djourou.

If you select them in a 3-4-3 formation, you can make a pretty handy team out of that lot.

Now - I'm having real problems this week as I'm away with work AND my laptop is broken, making it almost impossible to write my usual weekly posts (never mind pick my team!). I'm going to try & write my Week 12 Player Picks in my lunch break tomorrow but it won't be extensive as usual, so any help our regular readers can provide in the comments/chat forum would be greatly appreciated this week.

What are people going to do about Drogba? I'm personally going to wait until definitive team news on Friday. And how many double gamers are you going for?

Remember Week 12 is Blog Cup Round 2.

Cheers,
AM

18 comments:

Ian Sanderson said...

My FF season has gone into freefall since Blog Cup Round 1, so hopefully Round 2 will inspire me. I've gone from top 300 to outside the top 5000.
Waiting fo more definate injury news before making any changes, but currently hold Hunt and Bullard so will probably swap Hunt for Ballack if he is fit and other Chelsea players are out.

Good Luck all.

Anonymous said...

This (potential) Drogba injury could force a real make or break move. Before this i reckon i would have kept Drogs throughout the African Nations. If he misses 2 or 3 games before then I may have to reconsider. It all hinges now on how bad his injury is, unfortunately we may not know properly before Saturday comes. Luckily, in the meantime we have Eduardo to ponder over...

chris m said...

Ah. Chaos reigns. And AM has to actually do some real work for a change :). I have been wondering how you juggle all this. I would volunteer to help out but my hard drive died, my Mac Pro is being resurrected at the Apple store, I will be restoring all, and am living in techno hell.

Absolutely no clue about Drogs. One week at 0 is worth not losing the discount-does anyone know when the ANC starts and how many fixtures he will miss? I would do it myself but as said I am in techno hell.

The DG issue is real problematic. Will attractive DGer's like Duff be held out because he had two WC games? Or Dempsey who had 2 ridiculous friendlies?

Right now I have penciled in 7 DGer's Zamora, Duff, Dunn, Rodwell, Paintsall, Heitenga, and the big expensive gamble, Schwartzer. Last DG week showed you got to go that way if you pick the right players. But who the hell knows.

Arsenal is a complete total clusterfu*k. There was word this PM that Gibbs was injured in the under 21 match. I think all Barn Door eyes will be focused on Eduardo. Not this week though.

cheers all

bean said...

no specifics, but Gibbs was withdrawn from the U-21 match after 21 minutes
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/gibbs-off-injured-in-england-under-21-match

I've been tinkering around a bit, but not making any real moves until the injury news settles down. my guess is that Drogba's injury is not really what the Sun is claiming. I would think with such a major player, if he really had the injury there would be more sources substantiating the evidence..

bean said...

more specific news on Gibbs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/8365400.stm?

Bradley said...

@bean: I agree there should be more coverage on Drogba's injury if it's serious. The only articles have been from the Sun or people quoting the Sun. I've seen more independent reports on RvP plan's to have human placental fluid rubbed on his ankle in Serbia.

@chris m: The 2010 African Cup of Nations will be played in Angola January 10-31. Obviously losing teams will be out earlier, but Cote d'Ivoire probably won't be doing Drogba's YFF managers any favors. At a minimum these fixtures are at risk (not including travel or recovery time):

9th January Hull vs Chelsea
16th January Chelsea vs Sunderland
27th January Chelsea vs Birmingham
30th January Burnley vs Chelsea

One complicating factor in dropping Drogba earlier is that the PL fixtures come fast and furious in the Christmas/New Year's timeframe.

chris m said...

@Bradley Thanks. We have him through the Christmas/New Years Window. Assuming the f*ck Jonny Evans didn't kick his ribs in. Drogba being out the next 3 weeks will throw YFF into a frenzy. Can I have human placental fluid rubbed into my brain?

Anonymous said...

How is it that J. Evans isn't being suspended for that sidekick to Drogba's chest?

Anonymous said...

i have drogba for 6 mill discount, and i think i'll wait just a lil' bit longer...
If it's true then i'll just add one more double gamers for total of 8 with one filler...

Anonymous said...

Gonna wait till Friday at the earliest, if not Saturday morning to make my mind up on Drogba, as I'm not dropping a 6 million discount on the basis of a Sun article. I am however looking at dropping him for the African Nations and hopefully by the time he returns his price will have dropped again, if not to the 10 million I got him for.

Gibbs is a concern as he is cheap at present and replacing him would bite into my already stretched resources for the DG. AM - two questions: firstly given that he is only just back from injury do you think Bullard will start both games or is Geo a better bet - I've got a feeling we might see Jummy start from the bench against Everton.

Secondly is picking Cahill really worth it - I recon if he doesn't score he'll be lucky to make his purchase price over the two games (ditto Fellaini).

Paphos Toffee

Bojan said...

Ivory Coast has frendly game today... We will be a lot smarter after that... About Dempsey, US manager and Hodgson had an agrement so Dempsey played just against Slovakia and returned to Fulham for some rest... Duff will not start on Saturday, so Greening might, but Duff will play second game if not getting injured today

Bojan said...

My player picks for week 11:

GK

1st choice: Mark Schwarzer - DG with two good chances of CS(@Birmingham,Blackburn)...He will return his value for sure...For me the best pick of the week...Could even be the most scoring player in week 12...

2nd choice: Boaz Myhill - DG with two home games(WHU and Everton)...After trashing by Tottenham(1-5) Hull allowed just 3 goals at home ground in last 5 games... Wins against Bolton,Wigan and Stoke-draw with Pompeys and losing to Birmingham...He is returning after injurie but at 4M he is a great pick...

Only other pick is Sorensen... Last season Stoke would always bounce at home after bad results, 2:2 against Wolves and losing to Hull 1:2... Very often with CS agaist "small" clubs...

Bojan said...

DEFENDERS

Fulham: Paintsil, Hangeland, Hughes, Paul Konch and Baird
Chelsea: Alex and Ivanović
Bir'ham: Roger Johnson
Hull: Dawson, Zayatte and Gardner
Stoke: Shawcross, Huth and Collins

i will play in 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 formation, with 2 Fulham defenders, one Chelsea defender and one Hull defenders depending of funds...

This week I don't like Vermalen and now I have just 2M discount on him so I droping him of... He will return his value just if he scores, because he wont get CS...

Bojan said...

i would continue in the afternoon if you want... now i have to go

Anonymous said...

Bojan - do you have a source for your claim that Duff will not start? or is it just your opinion. seems a good point, i hadnt considered he might get rested post ireland games. Might move to Dempsey

Joshtottenham

Anonymous said...

I guess that if Drogba will be injured for a while, I'll put Dempsey instead. For now I have 5 DG, though there are many question marks:
Myhill - Injured or not? If anything goes clear that he is, I might move to Robinson. Many don't like him here, but see his points and the amount he conceded - it's amazing he gets positive points all the time. And the teams he meets aren't that good.
Hughes - or maybe Ivanovic? I'll probably go with the double-gamer, just in case Wolves score with all of Chelsea's injuries in defence.
Nelsen - or Heitinga. I'm not sure about his spot at Everton any more, though.
Drogba - of course. If it's for a week, he'll stay with no doubt.

Myhill
Vermaelen Nelsen Hughes
Fabregas O'Hara Hunt Etherington
Drogba Rooney Zamora

SF

Bojan said...

@Joshtottenham

It is just my opinon... But I'am 99% sure that he won't start...

Dave said...

Re: the ACN games - note that players will sometimes link up with their national squads early in order to get in some training with teammates. In past years is has varied greatly depending on when the federations call up the teams, and they often make arrangements with clubs to allow certain players to join up later. I recall times when richer clubs have agreed to fly players to Africa on the owners' personal jets if it meant their players could remain with the club longer to feature in fixtures.

A long-winded way of saying that we need to watch ACN/preview news closely, as important YFF players will be jetting off at different times and likely earlier than we think.

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