Grygera
From the offal:
The Club can confirm that Zdenek Grygera suffered an ACL rupture during the match against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday 6 November.
It is estimated that the recovery period for an injury of this nature is approximately 6 months.
The Club will update further on Zdenek’s progress during the course of his rehabilitation.
Oh boy.
The hot button issue at the beginning of the season was Jol’s insistence at putting Senderos in the middle with Hangeland, and shifting Hughes out to the right. Well, both Senderos and Hughes would eventually get injured leaving Chris Baird to deputize in the center and the newly signed but well seasoned Grygera to fill in at right back.
And, it seemed to work to a degree. Since his first league appearance in late September against West Brom, Grygera featured at right back in five of the next 6 matches (only missing out at Stoke City; was he injured? Cannot see to find anything), quietly adding some degree of solidity to our seemingly ever-changing back line.
Although not entirely because of him, the club posted an average 2-2-1 record with Grygera in the side, keeping 3 clean sheets in the process. Plus two of the losses suffered were not because we deserved it but because God hates us and wants us to suffer, or something.
Perhaps its time for Stephen Kelly to step up, or hope Senderos and/or Hughes get better and have Chris Baird slot in per usual?
7 Comments on “Grygera”
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Really sad news though I think we all knew this was likely from the length of time he was down and then hearing his scream on the TV later.
Zdenek has been a surprise success so far and we’ll definitely miss him but I reckon Aaron won’t be out for long and Kelly has done pretty well filling in so far. A run in the team could do him some good.
I like Kelly at right back…seems more confident going forward. I think I heard in a recent interview Baird say he prefers centre back so I imagine he won’t be too keen to go back on the right.
In my mind Grygera was supposed to be a sort of third centre-back / right-back to ensure we had three men back while Riise was being destructive up front. Grygera’s been fantastic for us defensively, oozes quality. This is a real shame for him, freak of an injury which’ll make his contract discussions tricky for everyone.
yea that Riise’s been a real pest going forward this season :p
Kelly played well against Blackburn and brilliantly against Citeh. He improved the side when he came on at half time against Tottenham. I see no reason why the RB position shouldn’t be his to lose.
If we have to sub him at some point, I’d much rather Baird be there rather than Hughes. I love Aaron, but he was lost at RB earlier this season.
I’m with you here. Kelly is 28. Some footballers, particularly defenders, don’t reach their peak until this age. Look what happened with Baird a couple years ago. Aaron Hughes and Hangeland could be cited as other examples of players really coming into their own around 27/28. Kelly has clearly looked better this year (and I would argue didn’t look bad at all last year). I’m not suggesting he will be a world beater. But given opportunities to play in a settled system and I think he could surprise a lot of people.
Still Grygera is a real shame. He looked very good. Will we see him for Fulham again?
Every bit of that can be agreed with. The last question answers in the negative, I’d guess. Parallels with Bonnisel, who also pleasantly surprised us at full-back (other flank) but soon bowed out to injury. Propensity to that was perhaps why they were attainable.