There’s no rest for the mildly disappointed. No sooner have we said goodbye to one gameweek, that preparations for the next begin. Full team news will follow tomorrow but with no time to spare, here’s a recap of the walking wounded and suspension news from today’s games to get you prepared – including details on Bullard, Ferdinand, Bosingwa and the rest…
Okay, so with another gameweek to follow so shortly, it’s pretty likely that players who picked up knocks today, will be major doubts for their games on Monday. It’s worth pointing out that United play Boro on Sunday, giving their players another 24 hours to recover, while Villa play Hull on Tuesday. As I said, I’ll give the team news section a full update tomorrow. For now though, here’s a recap on today’s casualties.
Injuries
Arsenal suffered an injury in the warm-up with Djourou tweaking a calf muscle. In the game itself, Alex Song picked up an injury and was replaced on 43 mintues. Both will be doubts for the home game with Pompey then. Clichy missed out on a starting role with a slight calf injury apparently. He looked okay when he came on though, so he should be fine for the Pompey game.
Chelsea’s Bosingwa was replaced at half-time but it was not due to a specific injury as is being reported on some sites. Scolari states here that he was just handed a rest.
West Brom’s Meite picked up a hamstring injury and was replaced on 27 minutes. He is already being ruled out of the home game with Spurs on Sunday.
Gary Cahill picked up an injury late on for Bolton but limped on up front after Megson had used all his subs. There’s little news on his situation right now.
Fulham’s Jimmy Bullard sustained a dead leg in the first half of their visit to Spurs. He was subbed on 27 minutes. In the same match, Spurs lost Tom Huddlestone to an ankle injury after 20 minutes.
West Ham’s Lucas Neill picked up a knock and was replaced by Faubert at half-time.
David Dunn limped off with a suspected hamstring injury on 62 minutes. Blackburn also lost Ryan Nelsen to a serious head wound late on.
Rio Ferdinand’s back again proved problematic as he pulled out of United’s match with Stoke after aggravating it in the warm-up. Ferguson has already ruled him out of the Boro game and United’s Cup encounter.
Mark Viduka was subbed just after the hour mark with a knock in Newcastle’s defeat at Wigan. Kinnear also lost Beye to a serious looking injury after just 34 minutes. His defence is in real trouble for the Liverpool game as he also lost Enrique in the warm-up to injury and Bassong is now suspended. All four have been ruled out of the Liverpool encounter on Sunday.
Suspensions
Craig Bellamy will miss the home game with Stoke on Sunday having picked up his fifth booking last weekend. Stoke’s Wilkinson will also miss that game having seen red for two bookings against United today.
Newcastle will be without Bassong for the visit of Liverpool on Sunday. He starts an immediate one match ban for his red received today against Wigan.
With FA Cup ties catching suspensions from five bookings, surprise, surprise – there were a lot of players notching their fifth bookings today. Blackburn’s Ooijer, West Ham’s Parker, Sunderland’s Arca, Wigan’s Cattermole, Bolton’s McCann, Stoke’s Cresswell and Arsenal’s Song , will all miss their respective Cup ties next weekend. How inconvenient.
In terms of the suspension tightrope, Chelsea’s Ballack was a new entry on 4 bookings while Everton’s foul machine, Fellaini ,moved on to 9 bookings and is now just a single yellow away from a 2-match ban. Nigel Reo-Coker eat your bench-warming heart out.