Last night’s 3-2 win for Stoke may have offered much-needed returns for some fantasy investors in the double gameweek, but it also came at a cost. Aside from the injuries to Fulham’s Hangeland and Zamora, Stoke City paid the price for last night’s frosty conditions with Tuncay hobbling off before half-time.
The Turkish striker had earlier given Stoke the lead and seemingly had done enough in his time on the field to surprisingly claim the maximum Fantasy Premier League bonus points in the process. As this report describes, Tuncay’s injury appeared to be self inflicted after a tenacious spell for the striker during which he was undoubtedly a major influence. At first, the injury was reported as a “slight thigh strain” but Stoke boss Tony Pulis has this morning confirmed it as a hamstring injury, reiterating his importance to last night’s win…
“He’s got a hamstring strain and he will now go for a scan…We will have to wait and see, but it doesn’t appear to be too serious and hopefully he has got a chance of being fit for Saturday’s game at Turf Moor. After his performance against Fulham, the confidence in him will be sky high, so if he can play at Burnley on Saturday it will be fantastic for us.”
Should Tuncay fail to recover for the weekend, it looks pretty certain that he’ll be shipped out en masse over the next gameweek. Stoke have a tricky home game with Liverpool to follow the Turf Moor trip and then miss a fixture in gameweek 23 due to Man City’s involvement in the Carling Cup. It’s also worth noting that, following this, Stoke’s fixtures look pretty tough right up until gameweek 31.
As I mentioned in an earlier article, the injury to Zamora appears to have promoted Clint Dempsey in our thoughts for the coming weeks. He provides an obvious replacement for Tuncay owners who have funds to spare. Given the recent news from Wenger on Denilson’s role as the Gunners defenisve midfielder, Abou Diaby would be the other obvious candidate. He can be found in the same price bracket as Tuncay and appears to offer strong value, despite Arsenal’s tricky run of games in the mid-term.