Pre-Season Injuries - Starting As We Mean To Go On

Panic among the fans won’t hinder things in the slightest.

 

It's OK, we needed some whine to go with all the cheese anyway.

Should have enough for a nice soirée or two after this thread runs its natural course!

 

It is quite easy for fan anxiety to spread to the team and start to affect decisions and performances.

 

Then you'd have to seriously question the mental toughness of our squad of highly paid, elite level sportsmen, wouldn't you?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being disappointed and frustrated with the injury situation, especially considering the disaster we've had on that front for two straight years now. Having this many first team starters injured before we've even kicked a ball in the league is very much something to be concerned with as a fan.

 

Whilst that bit may be true, the caveat to that is that he went and trained with England pre-WC. I’m sure Southgate wouldn’t have had him there if he was a virtual passenger.

 

I must I am worried now that Chalobah may never return, at least not as the same player, after such a serious injury.

 

I see your point but he seems to be training with our squad too. Big step up from there to match fitness though and another leap again to regular PL match fitness.

 

Sadly I think you might be right, but I pray you are not.

 

I would be surprised if Cleverley will be in the squad for the first half of the season.

 

Back by Autumn apparently, so around mid March

 

I hope we don’t have the situation of the likes of Cleverly and Kaboul taking up pre Xmas squad spots with wildly incorrect return dates if it means others miss out (like Wague last year).

Where is Kaboul anyway? The last update I read was back in January when he had started training with the squad. Since then nothing!

 

He was shown running about in the club's pre-season videos on YouTube, so it's odd that he's not spent a minute on the pitch for us since in the friendlies. Perhaps he isn't being risked because he obtained something like a broken fingernail in training.

 

Precisely, nobody has noticed that the club says autumn, but fails to say in which year.

 

On the advice of our medical team I believe we also took out a life assurance policy at the same time and this will more than cover the cost of his contract (along with suing his estate for "non-performance" of his 3 year contract).

 

Just a random thought Cthulhu but, especially during a transfer window, do you think information about comeback dates is withheld publicly because it may impact on fees paid out for players?

If a selling club thinks we've a just a few knocks & bumps then we wouldn't be desperate to buy so they can't inflate the price artificially.
However, if we told everyone exactly how long players are out for and they are long term absentees then a selling club could lump a few £££'s on knowing we need to buy right now.

 

Possibly but that doesn’t explain the complete lack of information for the entirety of last season either. I’d love to think there’s a real reasoning behind it but it’s gone on long enough now that I just think the medical side of the club is a mess. Both in preventing injuries and helping recover them in decent timeframes.

 

I’d like to suggest that we rename The Team Bus section of this forum to The Team Ambulance.

 

Personally I'm not fussed if the club tells us if a player is out or for how long.
The amount of injuries is the concerning thing though.

When we were in the Championship a lot was made of flying the players to, and possibly from, games to save on the stress of long coach journeys.
The cryo-tank thing was shown. There was a treadmill with weight support shown so players could keep up general fitness without putting strain on damaged joints.
One of the keepers was flown to Italy to get a mask especially made when he had a facial injury.

The squad looks to be very well looked after and a few players came out and said how well they were treated, it was premiership quality.

It just seems bizarre that a club that gets the majority of its infrastructure right has such a problem in this one particular area.

 

Obviously not an injury but it may be the reason Kiko hasn't played the last few games in pre-season.

Is he on paternity leave by any chance?

This has come up on the #WatfordFC twitter feed and there was one with his wife/partner and the baby a few days back too.

 

Give him a few extra days off to wash out the chewing gum in his hair

 

Oh bugger!

 

Shocking. This would never happen under Mourinho.

 

I don't actually care about the communication to fans. I do care about the fact that certain players seem to be injured for around 50% of the time, some even more.

I accept that injuries happen and I accept that complications occur on the path to recovery, but the issues we've had with recurring injuries, long term absence and poor rehabilitation point towards a systematic failing in our fitness and medical staff, to a degree which was alarming 18 months ago, but now is completely catastrophic.

 

If he's just given birth it will be weeks before he feels up to everything. His noonie will be killing him.

 

Sorry, which one is Kiko?

 

'Daddy why have you got such silly hair?'

 

Triplets ?