ALLEN INJURY CASTS A SHADOW OVER INTERNATIONAL WEEK FOR CITY STARS
AS if we needed any more weeks of little to do, welcome to international week. Traditionally the main entertainment for Stokies is seeing how our welter of international stars get on turning out for their countries.
In the last couple of seasons that has more become seeing how our former international stars have got on.
Former because they no longer play for us, of course…
But if you’d rather not torture yourself with how Xherdan Shaqiri has got on in away games against Bulgaria (his team won comfortably 3-1), then there are current players to focus on.
Rabbi Matondo is an interesting case in point. He has been a peripheral figure following his loan signing, which was much-heralded at the time.
In Saturday night’s Wales friendly against Mexico, Matondo played from the start and got a muchneeded 81 minutes under his belt. N ot only that, he played a roving role behind main striker Kieffer Moore in a formation reminiscent of Michael O’neill’s last two Stoke selections – 3-4-2-1, with wingbacks, two sitting midfielders to protect the back three and a big target man.
Sound familiar?
Shame one of the midfielders in that game wasn’t Joe Allen. A knee injury six minutes into Wales’ previous match seems to have curtailed his rehabilitation just when he was starting to put some good performances together.
On the bright side, Rhys Norringtondavies impressed, but playing the leftsided centre-half of the Welsh back three, not the wing-back role. One for O’neill to ponder there.
Meanwhile Adam Davies didn’t get onto the pitch in either that game or Wales’ previous one, a tough World Cup Qualifier against world number ones, Belgium.
At least he made the bench, though, unlike Sam Vokes, who no longer makes the squad.
He must be as bored as me. For Northern Ireland, O’neill’s former charges, of course, a spirited 2-0 defeat in Italy saw Jordan Thompson come on as a late substitute in midfield, but the main Irish story came on Saturday night, when a Republic of Ireland team shorn of ex-stokies such as Jon Walters and Glenn Whelan, both now retired, plus with injury victim James Mcclean on the bench, were somehow humbled 1-0 at home by lowly Luxembourg.
Mcclean did make it on for half an hour, so the good news is we can expect him back in the mix for the matchday squad come City’s visit to Bristol City on Good Friday. The bad news?
Mcclean was on the pitch when Gerson Rodrigues scored one of the most historic goals in Luxembourg football history. Hardly a great way to start his rehab back into playing again.
So, it’s been very much a mixed news week on the Stoke international front and with so many games packed in, it’s not surprising that we’ve suffered another injury in this most blighted of seasons.
Let’s hope Joe Allen’s knee doesn’t end his season and chance of appearing in the Euros for his country. Having suffered that debilitating Achilles tendon injury last March in the final game before Covid lockdown, Allen must have been one of the few people on the planet to have been in some way pleased that last summer’s Euros were delayed, giving him the chance to find his way back to both playing and decent form.
Joe was showing signs of doing
just that and he will be devastated if this new injury costs him that opportunity after all the work he has done to get back into shape.
For us Stokies, it opens up the possibility of either Thompson, or the less-spotted Jordan Cousins, coming back into the frame in a midfield which hasn’t always fired on all cylinders with both Allen and Jon Obi Mikel in tandem, and therefore having more legs in it.
While, if Matondo’s confidencebuilding appearance can bring him more minutes in a Stoke jersey, determination to beat his man with his pace and a trick and delivery into the penalty area for former international striker Steven Fletcher to bag a few more goals in these last few games of an otherwise dead season, then that might just ignite some interest.
So, there was quite a bit to care
about this international week, but most of it was regarding loan players, not our own, and we’ve gained a potentially significant injury to boot.
But at least it’s over and we don’t have to worry about another one interrupting the league season, for which the focus has to be O’neill’s regeneration of the team in readiness for a full tilt at promotion next time around.