Hirst Out Injured Again?

[Shed on tour]

Rumours going around that he might be out for 6 weeks due to the knee injury he picked up at Tottenham.
Hopefully it’s not true and is just the normal social media bs.

[Bluemike]

Would never surprise me with him tbh, if this proves to be true I think we should offload and replace in January.

[Shed on tour]

If true we better hope that Delap doesn’t pick up an injury between now and the January window. Hirst certainly seems to be injury prone which is a shame as he does a lot of hard work for the team when in the side. However, unfortunately we have no room for sentiment in this league and I agree if he is out injured again we need to be looking to bring in cover for Delap.

[Bluemike]

He's just not reliable fitness wise unfortunately, of course it may not be true as yet.

[Cabanas Blue]

I was fearing the worse when Szmodics went down last night thankfully he was OK but I was annoyed they kept him on until the 85th minute.

[Charnwood]

I was fearing the worse when Szmodics went down last night thankfully he was OK but I was annoyed they kept him on until the 85th minute.

I was slightly concerned but thought if he was really injured in anyway he thought could prevent him from playing against Man Utd he’d have asked to come off.

[Cabanas Blue]

I was fearing the worse when Szmodics went down last night thankfully he was OK but I was annoyed they kept him on until the 85th minute.

I was slightly concerned but thought if he was really injured in anyway he thought could prevent him from playing against Man Utd he’d have asked to come off.

Just a cut from the other players boot thank goodness.

[Bluemike]

This is why I hate these meaningless bloody international games, I fully understand when players drop out, I would too.

[hallamblue]

How many injuries has Hirst actually had since he’s been here, anyone know?

I know he had that hamstring rupture, and then another injury not long after that. If he has had a knee injury it’d be interesting to know if it’s on the same leg as the hamstring injury, as the hamstrings act over two joints simultaneously ( hip and knee) in opposite directions simultaneously. Which is why hamstring injuries are so bad.

Micheal Owen sustained a bad hamstring injury quite a while before he had the ACL knee injury on the same leg. These injuries are often linked , and often upset the whole motor control of the limb. This probably wouldn’t make such an impact if you or I, but on a professional sportsmen, crucial.

Edit:
Just had a hunt round on internet and he’s really only had 2 injuries since he’s been with us.

Torn muscle fiber Dec 27, 2023- Apr 23, 2024 118 days out. 21 games missed

Knee surgery Aug 3, 2024- Sep 1, 2024
29 days out. 4games missed


Inner ligament stretch of the knee Sep 17, 2018- Oct 3, 2018. 16 days out

[Bluemike]

You say only Hallam, but we can't afford it in our situation.

[hallamblue]

I think it’s more the Club’s failure to secure another senior striker in August, that’s the real issue, not an injury to a player. I would hope we are looking to bring one in, in January. It might mean Broadhead doesn’t leave ( if we are forced to use Szmodics as cover for Delap (who is in 4 yellow cards btw!) …. I don’t think Al- Hamid is fit.

We have been hit with a lot of injuries IMO, and none have been minor knocks. This may be linked to the higher intensity / running the players are doing in training to mimicking PL games. It’s a fine line keeping players 100% fit and optimal without physical breakdown.

[hallamblue]

Looking at this post from Phil Ham re Al-Hamadi, it looks like he’s the bigger sick note, Mike. AND we signed him with the full knowledge of an ongoing injury, and he’s only 21yr old! So I think to lambast Hirst as injury prone is a bit harsh tbh.


Phil Ham “I Think they thought the surgery would sort it but was still an issue as of a couple of weeks ago. This from Kieran prior to the Brentford match.

Al-Hamadi missed out on international duty with Iraq having undergone adductor issue on which he underwent surgery early in the summer.

“Ali missed the international break, had a further injection in his groin area, it’s been a really complicated injury and issue for him,” McKenna, no stranger to injuries in that area during his own playing career, continued.

“Of course, when you have an injury in that area, it isn’t always necessarily one site, it’s a really small margin between what classifies as a hernia, an adductor, a hip flexor, deep abdominal muscle, hip joint, there’s a lot of things in that.

“He’s doing OK, he’s been back training in the last couple of days. We hope now he’ll get a really clear run at it, he has been training but he’s probably not been fully free of pain as he’d like to be, but he’s felt good over these last few days and he’s available for tomorrow, if we need him and he’s hopefully going to get a run now over the next couple of weeks of training well with a clean bill of health, which will make him in a stronger position.”

[Bluemike]

Al- Hamadi was set to go on loan, but it was the lack of securing Broja or Lath that forced us to keep him as cover even though he was not fit,

[hallamblue]

But we signed him in the full knowledge of an ongoing injury. Which he still has. He’s not playing any football is he?

[Bluemike]

He played through it until end of last season then had his op, doesn't affect us as he was never gonna start in prem, Hirst is different, we need another fit striker who supports Delap so if he keeps being out it's crippling us, this could be the Third lengthy lay off if true, hopefully it isn't though as he's done OK when he comes on but like Broadhead his fitness raises questions.

[valleyroad]

He played through it until end of last season then had his op, doesn't affect us as he was never gonna start in prem, Hirst is different, we need another fit striker who supports Delap so if he keeps being out it's crippling us, this could be the Third lengthy lay off if true, hopefully it isn't though as he's done OK when he comes on but like Broadhead his fitness raises questions.

He is not injury prone at all IMO. The only major injury he has had is a hamstring injury, which he seems to have made a decent recovery from.
The knee injury seems minor and can happen to any player even the new striker that seems to be being demanded !

I think Town will bring in another striker in Jan if they can get the right quality. Not 100% sure Hirst cuts it at Premiership level yet but the potential is there

[Bluemike]

118 days out missing 21 games was unfortunate but still a major inconvenience, he had his other injury too which may not have been so lengthy but still it happened. If this latest rumour is true who knows how long that may be ? I would say he's definitely injury prone for sure, same as Broadhead, we can't carry injuries in our situation.

I agree we will be in for a new striker in January with Al-Hamadi going on loan, we could then accommodate Hirst much better.

[Ricco]

Hirst and Broadhead arrived a day apart in Jan '23, they've been involved in 54 and 57 league games respectively out of a possible 78 since then. It's not awful, my worry would be more about the type of injuries and chance of reoccurrence, the club knows far more than we do on that.

Particularly Broadhead was unlikely to have dropped to League 1 with us had it not been for injury issues, so we took a risk on that and he is one of the important pieces of the puzzle that got the club in to the Premiership. While it's less of a loss at this point with the Premiership being a step up, I'm a touch saddened to see Broadhead not getting a chance at this level. The injury is bad luck, his attitude and reaction to dropping down the pecking order perhaps less so, we'll never know on that.

Either way, I think it's harsh to brand players injury prone prematurely, all players will have time out, I trust the club to know the situations of each player inside out and make a judgement on how that affects their value and position at the club. Before this season we had an excellent record of turning injury stricken players in to important members of the team. It's frustrating to see players out, but I don't think we're in a great position to pass strong judgement.

[Bluemike]

But what you are saying is its ok to miss One in every Three games because that's what those stats are saying, for me that is a problem.

[Ricco]

But what you are saying is its ok to miss One in every Three games because that's what those stats are saying, for me that is a problem.

It is a problem, but there is context, if it were someone as important as Morsy, then it's a big problem, but Ogbene goes out for the season and it seems most have just shrugged their shoulders and not even looked up from their chips.

Before this season it was 57 games played in 67 for Broadhead and more minutes last season than Hutchinson. At that point you'd have to say he was being managed well and perhaps injury issues were becoming a thing of the past. He missed 'only' 7 games this season before being named on the bench, perhaps that may have been sooner without a spat behind the scenes or other player injuries.

I don't know, I guess my argument is that even the least 'injury prone' players can have lengthy spells out. It's up to the team at PR to work out whether injuries are down to bad luck, mismanagement or ongoing 'injury prone' issues that are likely to reduce a players availability going forward. It's then up to the management to decide whether they can shoulder that risk, or instead opt to replace the player at a sizeable cost and potentially a drop in ability/performance. It's very easy to say lets just splash out for an upgraded Broadhead who doesn't get injured, but finding bulletproof wingers is a hard thing in itself, finding one for a reasonable price who is going to fit in to the squad and perform to a higher level without months of bedding in, I'd imagine that's not so straightforward (waves at J Clarke).

It doesn't matter with Broadhead now, it appears he will likely be off. It matters with Hirst, but that is because we are short on quality strikers, Broja was our best solution to that issue and look how many minutes he's played this season, I don't think there is a magic bullet out there.

[Blue Bentley]

Would never surprise me with him tbh, if this proves to be true I think we should offload and replace in January.

Is this a comedy post ?
With your logic we better offload Axel , Burns , Clarke, Greaves, Taylor ect

[hallamblue]

It’s a bit like an employee who has repeated odd days off sick, compared to someone who has ( like me ? ) , who has an operation and is off for a lengthy period. Mine looks worse , but it’s one period of sickness. Employers are far more interested in the employee who is a persistent day off sick. It’s heavily marked down on a scoring system HR uses to monitor sickness. The actual days a person has off sick. Mondays and Fridays score much higher than mid week absences.


Hirst has had ONE major injury since he’s been here. This type of injury often sees the player sustain another injury once they return to games. You see it time and again. He’s had a knee injury which was operated on. He missed 4 games. This latest injury is a knee injury also. Is it the same one ? I don’t know. But I think he caught his studs when he was bulldozed off the ball at the end of the game. Can happen to any player.

How many times has Burns been out with a hamstring injury ?

I said at the start of the season, we seemed to be getting a lot of players getting hamstring injuries in training. We know McKenna makes the session very match like in intensity. There’s pros and cons to that approach. Cant remember which player recently said the training is VERY hard and intense, and being ordered back to the club fr9m international duty wasn’t always a “ good thing”, lol

[Ricco]

Apparently injury rates (I think per activity time) are 10x higher in matches than in training, such is the intensity. And apparently a squad of 25 players is likely to average 7 hamstring related injuries over a single season. It's very common, that's for sure.

[Bluemike]

Would never surprise me with him tbh, if this proves to be true I think we should offload and replace in January.

Is this a comedy post ?
With your logic we better offload Axel , Burns , Clarke, Greaves, Taylor ect

It's not a comedy post at all, it's an opinion, IF and I say IF there is another potentially long spell out for Hirst it's a very big problem going forward, not hard to understand, for me anyway. We need cover for Delap, it's that simple, Hirst is ideal, all I am saying is he needs to be available.
Oh welcome back, did you lose your login details?

[Bluemike]

But what you are saying is its ok to miss One in every Three games because that's what those stats are saying, for me that is a problem.

It is a problem, but there is context, if it were someone as important as Morsy, then it's a big problem, but Ogbene goes out for the season and it seems most have just shrugged their shoulders and not even looked up from their chips.

Before this season it was 57 games played in 67 for Broadhead and more minutes last season than Hutchinson. At that point you'd have to say he was being managed well and perhaps injury issues were becoming a thing of the past. He missed 'only' 7 games this season before being named on the bench, perhaps that may have been sooner without a spat behind the scenes or other player injuries.

I don't know, I guess my argument is that even the least 'injury prone' players can have lengthy spells out. It's up to the team at PR to work out whether injuries are down to bad luck, mismanagement or ongoing 'injury prone' issues that are likely to reduce a players availability going forward. It's then up to the management to decide whether they can shoulder that risk, or instead opt to replace the player at a sizeable cost and potentially a drop in ability/performance. It's very easy to say lets just splash out for an upgraded Broadhead who doesn't get injured, but finding bulletproof wingers is a hard thing in itself, finding one for a reasonable price who is going to fit in to the squad and perform to a higher level without months of bedding in, I'd imagine that's not so straightforward (waves at J Clarke).

It doesn't matter with Broadhead now, it appears he will likely be off. It matters with Hirst, but that is because we are short on quality strikers, Broja was our best solution to that issue and look how many minutes he's played this season, I don't think there is a magic bullet out there.

You are spot on regarding Morsy, it would be way worse than Hirst, Broadhead is different, he's had a spat with KM and will go at some point. This debate for me rests on Sheds opening post which at present is hearsay, if Hirst is fine then great but IF there is another lengthy spell out its not good for us, we have limited cover and a new striker will be essential to our hopes, ok maybe getting rid of Hirst is a bit harsh but it could be he loses his place in the 25 man squad. We have to be ruthless, not looking out for our favourites.

[AzzurroMark]

Did I miss something with Broadhead allegedly 'throwing his toys out of the pram"? I haven't a clue where this story originated from or what level of truth/fact there is behind it!

[Bluemike]

Yes I've heard it Mark, and my source says it came from another player who's a family friend. It centred around the Broja deal.

[Ricco]

I guess an injury to Hirst would highlight the need for January additions, but I don't think there'll be panic beyond that. With his history and the way he plays, he's going to pick up knocks and niggles.

I don't really see why the Broja stuff would have gotten to Broadhead, I'm sure he's smart enough to know we'd bring in a load of additions and he'd have to fight for his place. Broja is a different position anyway, perhaps bringing in Broja would have pushed Delap wide to compete with Broadhead. Just seems very odd, especially with Broadhead being injured, hardly a strong bargaining hand.

[Bluemike]

Well apparently Broadhead was told he could go when the Broja deal was done, it was said around deadline day Broadhead repeatedly rung KM to find out what the hell was going on, none of his calls were picked up, Broja deal fell through, Broadhead continued to call and was finally answered where he was told "you're staying now" it was put to me that Broadhead was far from impressed and it comes across as being handled very poorly.

[Ricco]

Well apparently Broadhead was told he could go when the Broja deal was done, it was said around deadline day Broadhead repeatedly rung KM to find out what the hell was going on, none of his calls were picked up, Broja deal fell through, Broadhead continued to call and was finally answered where he was told "you're staying now" it was put to me that Broadhead was far from impressed and it comes across as being handled very poorly.

Yeah, that doesn't sound fun, though I can't envisage McKenna sat with a glass of champagne and a cigar ignoring Broadhead's calls, he's not naive, it would have been a very busy day for all involved.

It does fall on McKenna to keep his squad happy, which includes being transparent and preparing players for all possibilities, but I guess that would include revealing to Broadhead he was close to being cut, not an easy job.