The Injury Curse......

[Ger Regan]

What are the 12?
Off the top of my head this is the list:
Delph (injured before GH arrived)
Weimann (ditto)
Gabby (same)
Heskey (after, but with a history of injuries)
Carew (same)
Albrighton (somehow I doubt the training regime resulted in an acute case of appendicitis)
NRC (match injury, so it’s can’t be said with any degree of certainty that it is or isn’t the training methods)
Sidwell (Training)
Petrov (match injury)
Cuellar (Training, I think?)
Beye (Training I presume)
Collins (Training, but is back playing, unfortunately)
Bannan (match)

So of the long list that we have / had regarding injuries, 4 can be put down to training, but even at that, one is an ankle sprain, so (and I'm not an expert in this area so am willing to be corrected) that looks more of a injury that could happen at any training session across the country, not as a result of our particular methods.

[curiousorange]

I'd just like to point out that since Houllier has arrived, training now involves people who understand the stresses and strains on a players body and probably tailor physical exertion exactly to each individual to minimise the risk of injury. What it does not involve is John Robertson tossing out a string bag full of footballs and spending an hour and a half smoking on the near touchline.

[The Man With A Stick]

Well Albrighton is back in training according to the OS, hopefully he'll be back next weekend.

[Villa'Zawg]

I'd just like to point out that since Houllier has arrived, training now involves people who understand the stresses and strains on a players body and probably tailor physical exertion exactly to each individual to minimise the risk of injury. What it does not involve is John Robertson tossing out a string bag full of footballs and spending an hour and a half smoking on the near touchline.

That appears to be somewhat less than perfect logic.

[pauliewalnuts]

Well Albrighton is back in training according to the OS, hopefully he'll be back next weekend.

Is he really?

Crikey. That was quick.

[VillaAlways]

Well Albrighton is back in training according to the OS, hopefully he'll be back next weekend.

Is he really?


Crikey. That was quick.

laproscopic appendisectomy ie keyhole surgery.Back for the baggies I reckon

[VillaAlways]

Anyone know if NRC and Heskey are available? they're not on the physioroom injury list anymore

[TheSandman]

NRC I'm sure was back in light training a week or two back so he might be ready. Not sure on Hesk though.

[VillaAlways]

Some reports Heskey may be on bench

FWIW Daily Star reporting NRC available after 3 weeks out


I'm grasping at straws at the moment

[martin@ardenley]

From the OS

Emile Heskey has given Gerard Houllier a major boost after declaring himself fit for action against West Brom - while Barry Bannan is also available after recovering from his groin injury.

Heskey has been out for just over a month after tearing the medial meniscus in his right knee in a training ground accident.

But manager Houllier says the powerful forward will be involved at the weekend for the derby clash with the Baggies.

Bannan, meanwhile, missed the Liverpool game after feeling pain in his groin during the Blues clash but he's been cleared for action too.

Houllier said: "Emile was not involved at Anfield but he will definitely be involved on Saturday.

"It's not down to me, it's down to other people to analyse the minutes we've played with Emile - the goals he's made, the goals he's scored, the ones he was involved in and you would see the difference.

"Emile works hard for the team and we've missed him.

"Emile is an important player for us.

"Barry was touch and go against Liverpool and I think he was a bit tired so it was good for him to have a rest.

"The other day he had a bit of a flu which you can pick up when you're tired, but on Wednesday he was fine."

In other very positive injury news, Habib Beye [ankle] and Carlos Cuellar [calf] are both fit now while Nigel Reo-Coker [knee] has returned to full training.

Steve Sidwell [achilles] is back in light training while Stiliyan Petrov [knee] should make his return to Bodymoor Heath action in two weeks time.

Houllier added: "It was Nigel's first full training with us on Wednesday. Whether he will be in contention [for West Brom] I don't know yet. I'd be surprised.

"Steve is doing well. He's running now. The next stage, of course, is getting involved in full contact training.

"And I think within two weeks Stiliyan should be back in training with us. It is ahead of schedule. He is doing extremely well.

"Habib is back as is Carlos. Regarding Carlos, he did some training last week with us and looked all right. That's why I took him and put him on the bench. I was pleased with him.

[The Left Side]

Great news... that gives us a few more options.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Come january with a couple of serious quality signings and everyone back fit our season will kick off .....

[Greg N'Ash]

we or rather MON were exceptionally lucky with injuries during his time. . shit happens and we had this coming sooner or later. the real question is after so much money spent, why we haven't got a squad who can cope with it better

[Villa'Zawg]

we or rather MON were exceptionally lucky with injuries during his time. . shit happens and we had this coming sooner or later. the real question is after so much money spent, why we haven't got a squad who can cope with it better

It's because we haven't spent enough to have a stronger squad. Our rivals at the top of the table have 25 senior players + kids, we have 16/17 senior players + kids. Our rivals at the top have spent 2 or 3 times more on their squads than we have.

An interesting article here that explains how the differences in training methods may have as much to do with our injury crisis as rank bad luck...

"'Incompetent' Premier League Training Methods Are Ruining Stars Like Arsenal's Robin Van Persie And Tottenham's Rafael Van Der Vaart, Says Leading Fitness Coach" - clicky

[Greg N'Ash]

well, while i'm prepared in theory to believe MON had a better injury preventative training regime than Houllier, i think its stretching credibility to believe his was better than Ferguson's, Ancellotti's, Wengers etc.. All those clubs suffered worse than us during MON's reign and you still can get injured playing the actual matches rather than in training and again we got off remarkably lightly. The size of our squad was one man's fault. One of my major bugbears during his reign was that we were only a couple of injuries away from disaster and when we did get a few injuries we were forced to change the formation to cope. That was the way he liked doing things but to me the law of averages says this was coming sooner or later.