Football City star Kalas looks unlikely to play again this season
TOMAS Kalas has appeared to have undergone surgery on the groin issue which is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season.
The centre-back hasn’t featured for Bristol City since the 2-1 home defeat against Birmingham on March 5, having been forced to sit out of the past five matches.
Nigel Pearson initially suggested he was a doubt with a groin problem before the victory over Blackburn on March 12. He later admitted Kalas had reached his saturation point, laying blame to the amount of football he has played over the past two to three years.
The City manager also confirmed Kalas had been playing through the pain “for a while” and was happy to give him the opportunity to fully recover, having previously been hoping he would be ready to return after the international break.
However, it soon became clear Kalas’ injury was more serious than initially feared, particularly after he failed to return to the matchday squad following the two-week break last month.
Pearson didn’t go into detail on an update of his situation before the Peterborough game, only ruling him out of action, but an image posted to his Instagram page on Monday afternoon provided extra detail on the severity of the problem, having undergone a scheduled procedure.
It showed a hospital tag around his wrist with his name, date of birth and the name of the medical specialist, Professor Ernest Schilders.
A look into the website of Ernest
Schilders reveals he “combines expertise in medical conditions of the soft tissues around the hip and groin with extensive hip arthroscopy experience. Hip arthroscopy is a highly specialised and technically demanding procedure that should only be done by surgeons with extensive experience.”
It adds: “Professor Ernest Schilders is the country’s leading expert on adductor problems in athletes and has spent more than 15 years researching on this subject. He has treated players from the majority of Premiership and Championship teams.”
The image has laid doubt as to whether Kalas will feature again this season with just five matches remaining before the curtain closes on May 7 after the trip to Huddersfield. Pearson has admitted there is no time-frame on the player’s return to action.
After joining permanently in 2019, Kalas suffered a hamstring injury and then knee tendinitis limiting him to 23 Championship appearances. Since then, he played 40 times in the league in the following campaign and another 35 matches this time around.
Last month, the Bristol Post crunched the numbers to prove Pearson’s comments that Kalas required a much-needed rest, with goalkeeper Dan Bentley the only player among the squad to have played more minutes.
Pearson previously said: “He needs time to recover basically. It’s an overuse injury essentially. When you’re dealing with international players who have played continually for two or three years without a significant break, psychologically it can be a big hurdle to get over but when you’re a physical player like Tomas, the wear and tear side of it certainly comes into play.
“To be fair, he’s played through quite a lot of pain and discomfort for a while, and it was the same last season. Every player gets to a saturation point, and it’s good to give him the opportunity to recover.”