Martinez anger over 20 injuries
ROBERTO MARTINEZ has launched an investigation to find the reasons why Everton’s players have suffered so many hamstring injuries in the last 18 months.
Since Martinez arrived at the club in June 2013, a number of Everton’s key players have been afflicted with the issue. The total now stands at 20 after Leighton Baines missed the FA Cup tie with West Ham on Tuesday and Sylvain Distin was injured during the 1-1 draw.
A number of changes have taken place in Martinez’s tenure, with fitness and conditioning specialists Steve Tashjian and Dave Billows leaving — both men were key figures under David Moyes — while Danny Donachie, Head of Sports Medicine, resigned abruptly before Christmas.
Martinez has promoted Matt Connery to succeed Donachie and the manager, who is also a fully qualified physiotherapist, wants to discover why his players have been so susceptible to becoming hamstrung.
‘ There are reasons for it and it’s really important to find out why,’ said Martinez. ‘It worries me the number of players who got re-injured and that’s something we need to address. We need to get down to the detail of why that is happening.
‘ When you injure the right hamstring you’ve got a bigger chance of injuring the left and that pattern is worrying. We have to find out why that is happening but I’m quite confident that we will get to the bottom of it.’
The biggest casualty in recent weeks has been James McCarthy. He suffered a hamstring tear during a 2-0 win against Wolfsburg in the Europa League on November 27 and missed six games, but was brought back for the Christmas period.
McCarthy was then injured again after playing against Stoke and Newcastle in the space of 48 hours, and while Martinez hopes Everton have got to the root of the issue with him — they have looked at his diet and conditioning work — he has left a gap that has been impossible to plug.
‘James is a player who we have no replacement for in the squad,’ said Martinez. ‘ He’s unique in what he brings to the team. Of course you will have an Everton team without McCarthy, but it’s not going to be the same team, it will affect other players and the way that you want to play.
‘But it would be too big a statement to say without James we cannot play the way that you want to. I’ve worked with James for many years and I know what he brings to the side and what he allows the team to do. James is one of those players that you value more when he’s not on the pitch.’