United have yet another injury blow to deal with after it was confirmed that forward Jack Stretton is the latest to suffer a hamstring issue, when he was substituted with just 25 minutes played against Doncaster on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s really disappointing because we have to trust players, and if they say they’re fine we have to believe them,” manager Paul Simpson explained. “We had no other reason to think he wasn’t fine because he told us he was ok, he trained on Saturday with no issues whatsoever, but he said the ball went over his head and when he stretched to get it he felt something.
“I don’t know how bad it is, but I just keep thinking that it’s got to change. We can’t keep going with the bad luck we’re having, so I just hope in these next 22 games we start to get a bit better luck with injuries.
“I’m hoping it’s not bad for Jack, but we’re just going to have to wait and see. It’s becoming a real sorry tale now that over the first 24 league games we’ve had horrendous - and I’m going to say luck, because we’ve looked into whether we’re doing something wrong.
“We are honest, and we don’t feel as though we are doing anything wrong, it’s just the nature of the game.
“We’ll see what he’s like tomorrow, but we decided not to take any more risks with it. I took the decision that we needed to get him out of it.
“We’ve just got to deal with it and get players back fit. The good news is that hopefully Omari will be back and fit for the Newport game.
“Possibly Ben Barclay might be back out on the grass next week, or the certainly the week after, and that wasn’t a hamstring, it was an ankle. We’ve just got to see whether we can get some more bodies in to help us along the way as well.”
The number of hamstring injuries suffered by the squad this season has had a real detrimental impact, with the gaffer keen to get to the bottom of why that’s been the case.
“I know people are talking about they’d like to look into the women’s game as to why there’s all these ACL injuries,” he commented. “I’d love somebody to be looking into the men’s game to find out why we’re getting all these hamstring injuries.
“I’ve watched a game on TV, Blackburn, and one of their players has come off with a hamstring. It’s happening everywhere up and down the country. We need to get to the bottom of it.
“I think we’re always trying to make footballers faster, stronger, fitter, and I just think it’s obviously the load they’re going through is too much.
“When I think about this Christmas programme we’ve hardly trained, it’s been about recovery because games have come thick and fast.
“There’s obviously some demand that’s getting put on them, something different that’s affecting us, whether it’s surfaces, footwear, the demands of the game, I really don’t know.
“But I’d love somebody to do some sort of research into it and find out what’s causing it, because every club up and down the country is struggling with it at the moment.”
And never one for excuses, we wondered if sometimes it’s the case that injuries do catch up with us.
“I don’t want to accept it as the case,” he insisted. “I can’t accept it. We’ve got to do something about it.
“It’s really disappointing, that’s the biggest side of it, disappointing for the individual players, that they’re missing out on match time and playing games, and I don’t know, it’s very easy to say it’s catching up on us, but I don’t want to do that.
“Because we’ve just got to keep working, and try and find a solution to it. Whether that solution’s bringing different bodies in, but we’ve looked at all of the things that could be causes, and we’re not seeing that we’re doing anything wrong in it. It’s a real blow, the numbers that we’ve got.”
Those numbers left the squad at its bare bones for that Doncaster trip.
“The injuries do affect you, I’m not saying they don’t, but it’d be wrong of me to say that’s a reason for us not being at it for this game,” he said. “
“I still believe that if the group that started the game had been at it there was enough there to get a victory out of this game. Unfortunately they didn’t quite perform as we wanted them to.”
“Our other one is Ryan Edmondson,” he concluded. “We have an appointment for him, which will be this Wednesday.
“He’ll find out what’s going on with his shoulder from that. That assessment will give us a clearer picture of what the next course of action is for him and we’ll take it from there.”