Bamford

Just listening to JM's press conference and his comment on PB's injury, saying it was counter-intuitive that the rupture was the best thing that could have happened to him. Mirrors precisely my own experience, as per my earlier post, that my plantar fascia tear seemed to release tension in my heel. Not sure whether that qualifies me to be physio or to step in for PB when the time comes, but surely must be one or the other...

By all accounts lads several players have been playing (under MB) with niggles / injuries. I remember raising this about two years back, that all this high tempo training / murderball and then playing sometimes 3 games in 8 days that it will eventually catch up on our players, and even more so when the playing pool of players is so small.

In every sport no matter what, football, rugby, tennis, athletics, REST DAYS are just as important as the training / playing days, I don't think its criminal i think what MB didn't grasp was the nature of the english game. Most European leagues have 8 games (tops) in a season that probably define where the title goes. Spain for the last decade only had 3 teams capable of winning (barca, RM & AM), Italy again 3 teams, Germany was effectively only Bayern & in France its been PSG. So Clubs like this can develop when their players to peak at a particular time. In England there was a top 4 but teams in the top 6 were no easy games and then you had weekend games where a mid-table PL side can beat a top 6 side if they aren't 100% at it.

That type of knowledge MB hadn't experienced until his third year in England and didn't learn from when we didn't sign anyone in the Jan 21 window. Why he didn't change his mind about the small squad in Summer 21 window i'll never know maybe he saw where we ended up the season previous 9th, he might have thought he didn't have to, but we all saw the last pre-season games.

We had problems that were never addressed, we didn't really have the amount of injuries in 20/21 season compared to the current 21/22 season, and their is an argument to be made would MB if left in charge would he have gotten us out of trouble. That's hypothetical, but should we have seen our players breaking down, YES we should have.

Anyone that has played / coached knows the body needs time to recover and that you cant keep pounding the body, applying a heavy workload onto it and not expect that some days the body cant deliver. Its when the body is tired/weak/exhausted that's the most time injuries are picked up, and if you play on with niggles or minor knocks those niggles turn into injuries or worse can lead to a much more serious tear, stress fracture. So for me the medical team at ER have to answer alot of these questions, maybe they were bringing player health / performance reports to the manager and maybe he choose to ignore them but a finger of blame cant be pointed at anyone until the full facts are known.

Rodrigo really looks up for it as the No.9.

Hattrick is a big miss but I am sure Joffy can step up and James just needs a goal.

As Smurf has said, we have spent most of the season without Patrick. The new system JM plays probably suits other players better.

Soops has called it right. This gives Gelhardt and Greenwood opportunities to show what they can do. They are both overdue game time in the first team. I like both of them, they are quality, and if they get injured then there's still Dean and Matteo Joseph. Meanwhile Rodrigo - a Spanish International forward - has increasingly been looking the part. Given how many games Bamford has missed already, I'm less worried about this than with other positions.

Criminal if the club knew about him being injured for 12 months.

Did Bielsa convince the board he didn’t need a replacement or did the board say he couldn’t have anyone else? Either way it was a stupid mistake not to get backup.

Anyone else think even if he had been injury free, Bamford would not have the same season this time around? I reckon last season was a one off for him, all the stars seem to align. So even injury free we needed another striker.

It really needs sorting early in the Summer and not a panic buy mid August.

Apparently he has been struggling with this injury for 12 months.

If true, even more surprised we didn't get or even look at a replacement

Hopefully we can get him fit again for the start of next season, remains to be seen if he can get back to his best.

ruptured his plantar fascia, no surgery required will be out for a min 6 weeks, so thats (at the earliest) the Arsenal game on 7th May, but if Paddy makes it back at all this season more likely only for the last two games Brighton & Brentford.

Cant see him being "match" fit then so i think if the medical staff think he may need surgery down the line its as well to do it now rather than prolonging the inevitable. Personally i dont think we will see PB on the pitch for the rest of the season so our eggs are in Rodders/James/Joffy hands and we all know James up top doesn't work.

Gutted for Paddy he partly guessed that his season was over when he was in tears in the dugout at Wolves.

Or it gives Rodrigo the chance to do what he came here to do and play 9? Or it gives Gelhardt the chance he looks like he deserves....? We live in hope.

I'm very sad to see the state of Paddy B - this sounds like it'll end in major surgery if his foot is so bad.