FA Cup Injury Worries

It’s a mix match of good news and bad for the Cup match against Palace, although to be fair there’s probably not much point in doing another injury recap, given every time a player is out or in desperate need or a rest and the word rotation is used, Monny goes for the sublime tactic of confusing the opposition by still playing them.

So in other words, take the following with a pinch of salt.

First up in the Quack’s office is Gabby who took a ‘kick’ towards the end of the Man U match and now presumably has a sore leg, followed quickly by Petrov who has a sore ankle to go with his knackered achilles after Nani’s tackle.

The Mail suggest they are both doubts for the clash, and Monny has said neither would be playing if we were in fact playing tonight, but with the match being a few hours off they are still ‘doubts’.

‘Petrov would be a doubt. He would have no chance if the game would have been now. Gabby would be in the same boat.’

I suggest more likely than not they will play – they always do.

But there is some positive news in the land of Villa Injuries. Emile Heskey has returned to running and hasn’t suffered any ill effects, and Stephen Warnock returned to light running for the first time in a fortnight.

‘We’ll see how he is today and judge it tomorrow, but at least he was a wee bit more upbeat than he has been and that’s pleasing to see.’

So a possible return for both of them.

But for the Palace match itself and the dreaded non event of rotation, are we going to see the ‘gagging for it’ fringe and youth, or will just Big Brad get to put his feet up?

Well Monny says we are going to try and win the game, and that there may be some enforced changes ie Gab and Petrov, but overall…

‘I might make another change or two but overall I still want to compete in the competition. I don’t want to go out meekly.’

Given the fringe players have for the most part got us to these positions in the Cups I’m going to assume the last paragraph isn’t an inditement on the quality of our back up players.