Hamstring injury fears just cramp – McNulty
COVENTRY City striker Marc McNulty was struggling towards the very end of Tuesday night’s pulsating 2-2 draw with Luton Town.
Sky Blues boss Mark Robins revealed after the energy-sapping encounter that the club’s leading scorer was feeling his hamstring – an injury that always prompts caution because of the delicate nature of the muscle and fact that it can leave players sidelined for weeks if there is a tear.
“McNulty was feeling his hamstring at the end, so he’ll have to ice that up and see how he is this week,” said the City boss of the striker who took his season’s tally to an impressive 18 with a curling free-kick against the Hatters.
The striker went for an assessment with club physio Pauline Robertson immediately after the game before providing an upbeat update.
Asked if he’s injured his hamstring, he revealed: “No, I just think it was a bit of cramp towards the end there.
“It’s fine. I think it was just a
little bit of tiredness towards the end and don’t think it is anything too serious.”
McNulty believes the condition of the heavy Ricoh Arena pitch doesn’t help, adding: “It’s pretty energy sapping and not great to be honest.
“But that’s no excuse, we’re used to is by now.
“It can be quite heavy on the legs and that makes you a bit tired and lethargic towards the end of games. But you just have to dust yourself down and get onto the next one.”
As for his assessment of the game in which City took a two goal lead into the break against the League Two title chasers, the 25-year-old said: “It was very disappointing to end 2-2 and felt like a defeat.
“I thought first half the boys were very good. Second half maybe not so good but we expected Luton to come into the game at some point and I thought in the first half that they were pretty poor.
“They did a little bit after the break but I still think the goals were a bit soft from our point of view and at the other end we should have probably added a couple more goals.”
Talking through his goal, a delightul low curling free-kick from 25 yards out just before half time, he said: “I was going the other way but I noticed a defender who was covering the other post moved and I thought I could nick it round that side.
“So I changed my mind and lucky enough it went in.”
He added: “At 2-0 the next goal is always important. If we’d got another it would have killed the game but they got it and it put a bit of pressure on ourselves. Even then we still had a couple of chances but we were always in the game.
“They committed a lot of men forward and they are good side who have been at the top of the league for a long time, so we expected them to come here and have a spell in the game where they dominated.”