And so the list of injuries from international week begins, with Carlton Cole the unfortunate player to kick things off.
Cole replaced Heskey, himself victim of a hamstring injury, early on in England’s friendly with Slovakia today. The West Ham striker then suffered what appeared to be a groin injury and was duly replaced by Crouch after 33 minutes. Cole certainly looked in enough pain to suggest that the injury will worry Zola and his fantasy owners for next weekend’s game with Sunderland.
The budget striker has missed the last two games through suspension and was back on the fantasy radar. We’ll now have to wait further news on the injury before giving him further consideration. With Heskey and Cole both picking up injuries so far today, they’ll be thousands of fantasy managers hoping that Crouch isn’t next.
*Edit*
Crouch has now limped off, with what looks like a hip injury inflicted by a “challenge” from Skrtel. Should be just bruising but we’ll await news.