With Thursday FPL deadline looming, here’s a quick run through of the injury news that’s doing the rounds so far today, plus some confirmed news on Lampard.
First off, just confirmation on the Frank Lampard situation. It’s been revealed that he made a dash to attend the sick bed of his mother – leaving the pre-match warm-up last night to do so. According to reports, Lampard’s mother is “gravely ill” and Grant is unclear as to whether the midfielder will be available to him for the trip to Goodison. I’d say that was very doubtful at this stage.
Elsewhere, Birmingham’s Sebastian Larsson will undergo a scan on his medial knee ligament injury sustained against Everton at the weekend. McCleish is still sounding optimistic on this one with the Derby game against Villa looming.
“Seb has tweaked his medial ligament. He is a good healer, as he showed when he came back so quickly last time,” said McLeish.
McLeish was also confident over the fitness of Mikael Forssell who picked up an ankle injury at the weekend. Forssell was subbed at half-time but according to McCleish, “the physios are optimistic about his recovery”.
Nafti is another slight doubt for the game with Villa but he declared himself fit today after suffering cramp in the game against Everton. That will be a relief for McCleish who is missing Johnson in his midfield through suspension.
West Ham’s injuries are legendary this season but they do have some good news going into the weekend. Freddie Ljungberg is set to return to the squad for the home game with Derby. The midfielder has missed the last two games after suffering an inflamed nerve in his leg against Sunderland a fortnight ago. Apparently there was no damage to the hamstring as first thought.
To counter that, the Hammers have learnt that Anton Ferdinand is likely to miss the rest of the season with the hamstring injury suffered in the opening couple of minutes of the game against Bolton. Ferdinand will have scans but Curbishley is already writing him off for the remaining games.
Boro are likely to have Andrew Taylor available to them for the home game with Bolton this weekend. Taylor missed the Spurs game with a rib injury but Southgate is sounding very confident that he’ll make a return to the side this weekend. Grounds is set to make way.
Newcastle’s James Milner will return to training this week according to Keegan. The England U21 winger has missed the last five games with a foot injury. However, he’ll surely face a losing battle to regain his place given Newcastle’s turn of fortunes since then. Indeed Keegan has already stated that he’ll stick with the same eleven for the Derby game with Sunderland at the weekend. Milner could be a factor as a sub over the last four though, which could see him take some minutes from the likes of Martins.
Still at St James’ Park – Keegan has more or less ruled out Given for the rest of the season despite that fact that the keeper could return to fitness before the season is out.
Over at the Emirates, Justin Hoyte picked up a minor hamstring injury in a reserve outing last night. He could be in line to get a start at the weekend if fit as Wenger looks to hand opportunities to fringe players over the final games. Hoyte’s opportunity against Reading is now in doubt of course. Rosicky meanwhile has remained in Prague to undergo further treatment on his knee injury. Wenger has yet to confirm that the midfielder’s season is over but it’s looking that way. Rosicky is clearly concerned on his chances of making Euro 2008 but insists, “in the last few days I have been feeling a bit better.” Yeah, see you next season Tomas.
Finally there are a few players on the comeback trail to report on. Sunderland’s Ross Wallace will play a reserve game tonight as he bids to make a return to Premiership action before the end of the season. He’ll have Valeri Bojinov in opposition to him as the Man City striker steps up his return to fitness. Castillo also lines up for City, while Sunderland are also fielding Stokes, Leadbitter and Higginbotham.