Matt Taylor has confirmed Grant Ward’s injury, stating that the midfielder is expected to be out for around eight weeks due to a hamstring issue.
The 29-year-old developed the condition during Bristol Rovers’ 1-1 draw at Norwich City on January 6, in which Ward scored a wonderful equaliser for the Gas. After consulting with a surgeon, Taylor now has a better notion of how long he can expect to be without one of his key players.
It is no secret that the Pirates are already short on numbers in the middle of the park, making Ward’s absence all the more difficult, with Taylor saying, “So he’s not getting surgery. He saw a surgeon this week, thus there will be no operation this week. Unfortunately, there is a tendon involved in a hamstring injury, so we’re probably looking at roughly eight weeks, although I must emphasize that there is a significant risk factor associated with this injury.
“It’s one of those injuries where if it’s not surgically repaired, there’s a good chance he’ll re-injure that body part, so we have to be very careful that his rehab is important, that his training time and game time when he returns are appropriate, but we’ve probably saved ourselves four weeks by not having surgery. That was not a factor in making that decision; it was up to the surgeon to determine whether or not the injury required surgery.
“So we’re looking at eight weeks from 12 days ago when he got the injury at Norwich so probably six and a half weeks from now.”
On the subject of midfield, it is still unclear whether Sam Finley will be ready to play in this weekend’s home encounter against Blackpool after requiring injections to get through Wednesday night’s 3-1 FA Cup replay loss to Norwich due to a hip injury.
However, there was some encouraging news about James Wilson and George Friend, whose experience had been greatly missed. The defenders, aged 35 and 36, are two of the squad’s most veteran players, although they have both suffered injury-related setbacks this season after joining on free transfers in the summer.
Wilson sustained an injury in last month’s 2-1 win over Charlton Athletic and was anticipated to be out for months rather than weeks, while Friend has yet to play under Taylor, having last appeared in a 2-1 defeat at Derby County in November during Andy Mangan’s caretaker rule.
This weekend, as well as Tuesday night’s game against Exeter City, appear to be too early for their inclusion, but the pair may play some role next Saturday against Oxford United.
In terms of injury returns, the Gas boss stated, “I don’t think James Wilson and George Friend will be back this weekend. I hope to have them available to train on Monday, so Tuesday may be too soon in respect to that. But then you look ahead to the next weekend, and they have a real chance of being on the pitch. What capability they have depends on how they progress through the week, but they appear to be getting closer.
“There are two senior heads. A lot of what we’re talking about could be due to inexperience or a lack of knowledge at key points. They’ve been there and done it at all levels of the game, so I’m looking forward to seeing them back in the locker room as well as on the field.”
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