City might have drawn 0-0 with Oldham this afternoon in a positive run out, but there was negative news upon the final whistle.
Fans were hoping to see Tyler Walker feature in pre-season after he returned on the final afternoon of the season. He returned looking sharp, but he rolled his ankle before last week’s friendly against Preston in Spain.
That meant he missed the game, and today, the extent of the injury has been revealed. It’s not good news at all.
“Scan has been done, we see a specialist next week, that could be really disappointing how long that could be,” confirmed Imps’ head coach Michael Skubala.
“It could be anything from three months onwards.”
That means Walker is unlikely to be seen now until Halloween at the earliest, meaning by the time he does return, we will have had 25 minutes out of him, and since he signed, just 324.
Of course, it’s a huge blow for the club and the player, but I confess that some of the reactions I’ve seen towards him on social media have been surprising. No footballer wants to be injured, and he hasn’t gone out to get hurt. We might have made an outlay on him in terms of wages, but few could foresee the injury he suffered this summer happening.
As I posted on Twitter, I find it a little hard to take that some supporters praise the club for the human side of their recent business around Lewis Montsma but are then urging us to cut ties with a player going through a spell on the sidelines.
It’s not ideal Tyler Walker is injured, but I’m not sure it will change our approach in the transfer market. I suspect if we were signing a striker, we still would, and if we were not, we wouldn’t be forced into a knee-jerk reaction.
What’s tough to take is that at the heart of this, there is a 27-year-old footballer who, on his day, is a top player at this level, suffering another setback. I appreciate that supporters won’t all agree with me, but wouldn’t it be nice if we perhaps occasionally showed a little compassion toward our injured players rather than blame them?
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