The international break has brought our Fantasy dealings to an uncomfortable halt – a most untimely distraction that can furrow brows with further injury concerns.
To this point, the majority of Fantasy Managers will have come out of the weekend unscathed, but with Tuesday’s round of qualifiers and friendlies to come, here’s a few scribbles on some notable events of the last 48-hours…
Kevin Doyle is, so far, the only major casualty of the weekend. That will provide little compensation for Wolves who are now facing up to their season run-in without their influential strike. Doyle suffered a knee injury in Saturday’s 2-1 win for the Republic of Ireland over Macedonia after just 15 minutes. Republic boss Giovanni Trapattoni was not optimistic in his post-match analysis…
“It’s his medial knee ligament. I think he may be out for one or two months, so it’s a very serious injury.”
There is no official reaction from the Wolves camp just yet but Mick McCarthy will no doubt be devastated by the news. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake now looks set to lead the attack for the remaining fixtures. Blake is a 4.9 prospect in the Fantasy Premier League game and may earn some interest if Wolves continue their strong form over what is a favourable schedule of fixtures. Nenad Milijas could also have his stock improved as a result of gaining spot-kick duties from Doyle, although Stephen Hunt is another candidate here having recently declared himself fit for a return.
Man City remain hopeful that Micah Richards will recover from a hamstring injury to be in contention for their FA Cup semi-final with United on April 16. Richards sustained the injury whilst on duty with England’s U21’s – forced off after just 4 minutes of Thursday’s 4-0 win. Richards is certain to miss league fixtures against Sunderland and Liverpool, with either Jereome Boateng or Pablo Zabaleta set for the right-back role. The latter would seem very doubtful having been granted indefinite compassionate leave to be at the bedside of his seriously ill father in Argentina. It means that Boateng looks set for the shirt, which would seem to assure Aleksandar Kolarov’s place at left-back for gameweek 31 at least.
The Gareth Bale situation going into gameweek 31 looks precarious for his Fantasy owners. Bale was forced out of Wales’ clash with England with a hamstring injury which may or may not have occurred whilst in training with his national side. Regardless, Bale will now be a doubt for the trip to Wigan next weekend. Harry Redknapp has recently confirmed that Bale has not suffered a serious setback, however, it’s clear that he will take no risks with his star asset…
“The first I heard of it was at 10 o’clock on Wednesday night when our physio called
me. I feared the worst but he’s seen our physio and it’s only tightness…There’s no tear but if he plays and it pings, he’s had it.”
Saturday’s Wigan clash immediately precedes the first leg of the Champions League tie with Real Madrid on Tuesday. If there is any doubt over Bale’s hamstring, he will surely sit out of the DW Stadium trip.
On that note, Both Luka Modric and Rafael Van der Vaart started their respective friendlies this weekend. Modric played 90 minutes in Croatia’s 1-0 defeat in Greece, while Van der Vaart was withdrawn on 81 minutes having scored in Holland’s 4-0 over Hungary.
Nikola Zigic was kept out of Serbia’s 2-1 win over Northern Ireland on Friday with his groin injury still troubling him. Birmingham have been sweating on the big striker’s fitness ahead of the international break and are hopeful that, although Zigic has joined up with the Serbian squad, he will be kept out of the action. Serbia face Estonia in a second qualifier on Tuesday – it will be interesting to see if Zigic makes an appearance in that one. The lumbering centre-forward could well be a target for Fantasy Managers once fit given Birmingham’s forthcoming schedule (BOL bla SUN/che liv WOL new).
Javier Hernandez scored twice in Mexico’s 3-1 friendly win over Paraguay – a timely reminder, if Alex Ferguson really needed one, of the “Little Pea’s” current run of form.
West Ham fans will have admired Scott Parker’s showing for England in the 2-0 win over Wales but he wasn’t their only player to come out of the weekend with plaudits. Demba Ba continued his run of outstanding displays by grabbing a late winner for Senegal in the 1-0 African Nations Cup qualifier in Cameroon. The form of such key player bodes well for Avram Grant ahead of what is quite simply a tortuous run of forthcoming fixtures (MUN bol AVL che mcy).
Finally, Luis Suarez has been recalling his first month of action in the Premier League, predictably emphasising that he’s never experienced such a frantic pace. Significantly however, Suarez also came out with this…
“In other leagues defences play very tight but here you get space. I’m enjoying it.”
Suarez may have been referring to his recent goal at Sunderland in that respect – perhaps not the best example of Premier league defending right now. Even so, it’s food for thought given the goalscoring record of the Uruguayan before arriving in England. Suarez has so far notched 2 goals and 3 assists in his four Premier League starts and Fantasy Managers are beginning to take notice. Suarez has so far attracted over 27,000 new owners this gameweek, bettered only by Robin Van Persie, Charlie Adam and David Luiz.
