Dorking Wandering
The Dorking Wanderers FC Fans Forum
Tom said on the Totten thread players have missed 278 games due to injuries, so now that is over 280.
On a 46 game season that means that on average, we have had over 6 players out injured every single game. Assuming a squad of 25-26 (including loan players that feature regularly, but not youngsters which hardly get a game) that means we have about 23% of our squad injured every game.
As Marc said injury % should be 10% and will look at why so high this season. Also need to consider increasing use of youngsters, and have more cover in defence and attack.
'So high this season' lol
It has been high for 3 seasons, since we went to mornings
Can go back to Tuesdays and Thursday nights as far as I am concerned
Everything else has been talked to death!!!
"Why would I leave to join a League Two club? We're going there anyway!" - Marc White
Is there any expectation of seeing Mcmanus or Muitt again this season?
Dorking have done surprisingly well to be 3 points off the top with the amount of injuries. What has stopped them winning the title is the poor timing of the recent injuries (after the final transfer window closed), and the lack of cover in defence, and attack. Horsham had a very bad period of injuries, and slipped from playoffs to low mid table. They were down to 13 fit players out of a squad of 21, but it was the first few months of the year, so they could bring in loan players.
I think Marc is unrealistic to hope for 10% injury rate (2-3 players). Crawley are full-time but they still have had 4-8 players first team players out injured for a lot of the season, which is one of the reasons they have been fighting relegation all season. However, they have had more defenders so can at least cover injuries.
As Dorking Eagle says, switching back to evening training may be the way to go, especially as a lot of the players have other jobs. Full time clubs like Crawley have the advantage they can train when they want. Full time players can also keep fit by doing gym work, and if injured can do rehab exercises. Part-time players have less time to do gym work and rehab as they have another job, which they will want to go back to as early as they can.
We would lose a lot of our "full time" players like Pinchard, Lewis, Carter, Camp, etc if we went back to evenings.
We're at 289 games missed through injury this season with one gameweek still to go. We had 211 across all of last season.
There are lots of speculation of "Why" we have high injuries. However, we really don't actually know. Rich (BoA) mentioned to have the data given to his wife who does medical/health analysis, which I think would be great. There are so many questions and theories of what is happening, and without proper analysis, changes are based on guesses and not a more complete look at the factors. I would ask, "What would be more efficient changes?" We don't have the finances to just throw money at the wall of change.
