Clayton Wood provides an update as Stoke City prepares to face Southampton without six of its senior players.
There is optimism within Stoke City that the spate of injuries that have struck the team in the first few weeks of this season are not indicative of the club’s recent injury woes.
Six likely starting for Stoke are out for tonight’s Championship match due to injuries, including Enda Stevens (hamstring), Lynden Gooch (hamstring), Andre Vidigal (ankle), Tyrese Campbell, and Enda Stevens (calf). There is hope that the most of the first two, who hobbled out of Saturday’s victory at Bristol City, will recuperate and be ready right after the forthcoming international break. The first two are reported to be relatively minor injuries.
Campbell’s absence, however, might last a few months, and Rose’s absence emphasises why Neil wanted to get a fourth center-back during the transfer period. He only has Luke McNally and Ben Wilmot at the moment. Since Mmaee and Vidigal don’t have a real history of injuries, there is no need to be concerned that they may experience issues in the future, especially as they adjust to the intense environment of the Championship.
In fact, a particularly difficult fixture list might contribute to the explanation of why there is currently a queue for the physios.Alex Neil commented, “It’s too many games in quick succession.” The fact that we have seven games back-to-back and seven games in 21 days between international breaks is absurd, especially given the current level of competition in the Championship. I think this is perhaps the best Championship I’ve seen, and I said as much at the beginning of the season. That is to say, there are several pretty strong sides.
“The Leeds squad under Bielsa, my Norwich club under me, the Middlesbrough team under Karanka, the Fulham team under Jokanovic, and the Wolves team under Nuno were all tremendous teams. This season, I believe you have aa group of incredibly powerful teams. There aren’t many people who are particularly weaker than everyone else, if any.”The lads, if you ask them honestly—and I’ve had honest conversations with quite a few of them—can’t believe the pace and speed of the game. According to how they explain it to me, the Championship now moves from end to end, as opposed to their prior games where the ball moved from side to side. Every time, the game is balanced.In the cases of Wouter (Burger) and Ryan, they were on powerful teams if you were from Basel or Ferencvaros, respectively. There were perhaps two or three challenging opponents, but the remainder of the games were passed back and forth until a goal was scored. Whether you’re competing in the premier league or
Whether you are playing the bottom team in the league, the game will last 95 or 100 minutes at full speed.
The fact that games are going on longer is another element contributing to more injuries.
As one of just five Championship teams to go to the third round of the Carabao Cup, Stoke had to travel to Bournemouth over the week while other teams enjoyed a rare week off. Ipswich, Norwich, Millwall, and Bristol City are just a few of the road trips the club and fans have been on.
We’ve played as many games as we could have up to this point, according to Neil, and it’s not like we’ve had an easy time in those games either. We’ve had a few of victories in cup games, he added. West Brom was at home, which we obviously wanted to win, and we then drove Bournemouth away with all of our might.
S the accompanying journey.
“I would argue that our schedule has been the worst you could have chosen in terms of keeping players fresh and prepared for league games.”
