After getting out of bed with a spring in our step following yet another win on Sunday, we were brought back down to earth with the news Kieran Trippier has broken his foot.
The England international has fractured the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot and is set for surgery in a bid to return as quickly as possible, according to The Athletic.
Naturally, attentions have now turned to finding out just how long he could be missing, with The Times’ Henry Winter suggesting that 6-8 weeks is the minimum timescale on his return.
With this in mind, it looks like the 31-year-old will miss the following fixtures – although there are a few caveats*
- West Ham (A) – Saturday, 19th February
- Brentford (A) – Saturday, 26th February
- Brighton (H) – Saturday, 5th March
- Chelsea (A) – Sunday, 13th March
- Crystal Palace (H) – Saturday, 19th March*
There’s then an international break before we travel to Tottenham on Saturday 2nd April, however he would be doing well to be back in time for that one, meaning our home clash with Wolves on April 9th may be more realistic.
As for the caveats, Crystal Palace will be playing in the quarter finals of the FA Cup the weekend we are due to face them (19th March), should they beat Stoke in the 5th round on March 1st.
However, there’s a chance that postponed trips to Everton and Southampton are rearranged during this period Kieran Trippier could miss, meaning he looks highly likely to miss a minimum of five or six games between now and April, all things considered.
A huge blow at a time where things we starting to look up, however we have built momentum, boosted confidence in the squad and might just cope OK if Javier Manquillo’s injury isn’t too bad.
If it is, we’ll have to hope Emil Krafth is able to step up at right-back over the coming month or two!
Just let’s not play wingers as fullbacks Olly. Both Murphy and Ritchie have been constantly caught out of position when played as defenders. I think I would rather have Dummett or Burn on their wrong side than have wingers as defenders.
Eric+Sykes(Quote)
Olly, I mentioned it on the comments thread, that Rooney had the same injury about 10 years ago and before an England tournament. It seemed like a national pass time to predict when he would be back, certainly for the journos at The Sun and The Mail. It was 6 weeks.
Eric+Sykes(Quote)