Apologies Cc, I should have made the title of the thead 'Injury List' more clear to highlight this possibly devastating news about Diarra. I've included a link in that thread to the full story as told by Jol.
Seen this on the BBC... Definitely not good news for us. We are light weight in midfield as it is anyway! Fulham's Mahamadou Diarra could be set for a prolonged absence amid fears he has damaged cruciate ligaments. The 31-year-old injured his knee playing for Mali earlier this month. "There's a little piece of cartilage floating in his knee," said Cottagers boss Martin Jol, who revealed the midfielder would need an operation. The Dutchman added that if the damage was more severe than first thought, then Diarra could be out for "three, four, five months at least".
This news reinforces what i said in an earlier posting,we need to spend on a quality attacking midfielder in the Jan window.
If true and he did this on international duty then aren't we entitled to some form of compensation? I remember Newcastle getting a substantial sum after Owen was injured during an England game. If true, this is devastating news. Will Sidwell/Baird be enough until January? I know Jol could not have foreseen this happening but he really should have secured at least ONE central midfielder in January.
It did and we are. Rather small consolation though. If it is the more serious injury the irony is that he'll be back just in time to go off with Mali to the AFC !!! We have Karagounis. Ideally I imagine Jol would have preferred to hold him back for another 2/3 weeks while he gets fully fit but he'll now push him in earlier. Personally I'm convinced he'll be more than up to it. Then there is Richardson - although he appears to be rather injury prone as well. Your chum Ballack is still around Bandy. I hear he's considering going to some Aussie outfit for £50k per week.
This is bad news, but not as bad as it would have been this time last week. Since then we've seen Baird and Sidwell play really well together in the centre of midfield. That's something to be hopeful about.
They did well enough last weekend Cappy, but are you confident they can do it for us week in/week out? This really is time to shine for Kasami.
The Club won't know until after his op whether it is the cruciate Bidley, and Jol is only pointing out the worst possible scenario. So until next week what I suggest we do is ... disagree with Bandit about Kasami.
I'm not sure they have to do it week in, week out, just until Karagounnis gets match fit. And it may well be that the problem against Sheffield Wednesday wasn't so much Baird and Sidwell, as the absence of a Berbatov of Ruiz pulling strings further up the pitch (maybe). So, no, I'm not confident that Baird and Sidwell represent a safe pair of hands (quartet of legs?) for the next few months, but my point is that the news of Diarra's injury would have seemed infinitely worse if it had happened a week earlier.
I don't think Baird or Sidwell can play week in and week out... Especially against stronger opposition. Karagounis will provide a respite but we need to become innovative... Hopefully Ruiz and Davies can both help.
Not good news on Diarra, he'll be a big miss, especially against the top teams. Jol doesn't sound positive about the injury, and has a little moan about losing Murphy, Etuhu, Dembele, Dempsey, but remember he also let BH Riise and Gecov go who might have been able to do a job. So suspect he was hoping for a couple more in the transfer window, and didn't get them. Let's remember there is Richardson as well as Karagounis to come in midfield along with Sidwell and Baird. Could Kelly or Kasami fit into Defensive midfield if need be ?
Karagounis is innovative and more importantly he can hold the ball. Ruiz is not a defensive midfielder and Jol sees him as a striker, probably in the No.10 position behind Berbatov. Davies is clearly going to be sidelined with injury and even when okay will be nowhere near match fit. Don't think so Super Bri. Kasami did play there for his country in the Olympics when they went down to 10 men but neither he nor Kelly have the positional sense to play that role. Riether of the back four is the only one who has played there successfully. I'd try him if we became deperate and Grygera was back and fit but not otherwise. I agree that Baird and Sidwell could struggle against stronger opposition and can't really be expected to play every week, so hopefully Kara and Richardson will be fit soon. The other who might also fit in this role and has been mentioned in other threads is of course Frei. In the short term, young Smith will probably have to come off the bench more than desired. The one good thing is that with the lack of quality/depth in midfield, Jol won't be tempted to again try his 3 at the back format (or will he ?)
I think Senderos could do a job in holding midfield. His distribution is good and if he's not the last line of defense his, er, defensive game would suit well.
In an interview today Jol has pretty much said we'll need a replacement for Diarra if the worst is confirmed: A matter of 'Watch this Space' therefore. Although it re-introduces the speculation .. Bandit's Ballack ?? or my Borowski ?? Or ...???
I think everyone is pining their hopes on Karagounis without much reason. The guy hasn't played a game for us yet and by the sounds of it is still a few weeks away from reaching match fitness. I hope he proves to be another Diarra of course, but to claim he's the answer to our problems before he's even kicked a ball is a little premature.
And Jol seems to agree with you Bandit, when he said "So we are still looking to bring someone in and maybe there is another Diarra in the market because sometimes you can do deals with free agents outside the transfer window.” So come on, who would you say he should bring in ?
Ballack would want too much and I'm sure Borowski was seriously injured and left football. With Middlesborough playing tonight I looked for Barry Robson but found he'd gone to Vancouver Whitecaps, so would he be available in January ? on a short term, he'd be match fit but he is 33!!! Wonder why the Boateng from Dnipro deal fell through, rumor was they upped the price at the last minute.
