Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Hamstring issue could see Kal out until January
KAL Naismith has been ruled out of Bristol City’s game against Norwich tomorrow due to a hamstring injury which also puts the defender’s availability across December in doubt.
Naismith left the field in the 70th minute of the Robins’ 1-0 defeat to Southampton on Wednesday, holding the back of his leg, with head coach Liam Manning later confirming the Scot had felt his hamstring.
The extent of the injury and the likely time frame until he is able to return is still being assessed by City’s medical team, but it continues to be a frustrating campaign for Naismith, who endured a muscle issue which caused him to miss most of preseason and then he suffered a calf problem in October.
“He’s going to be a little while,” Manning said of Naismith. “We’re waiting for results, and a discussion with the specialist, so he’s going to be out for a little bit of time, which is disappointing, but time-wise I can’t give you anything on that yet.”
Naismith’s absence is mitigated by the return of Cam Pring from a onematch suspension, with the 25-yearold likely to line up at left-back against the Canaries, although it does further limit Manning’s options from the bench and in an overall squad sense ahead of a busy month of fixtures.
The City head coach is yet to name a full substitutes’ bench in the three matches he has presided over, with Naismith joining Nahki Wells, Haydon
Roberts (both ankle), Rob Atkinson (ACL), Ayman Benarous (hamstring) and Ross McCrorie (bacterial infection) in the treatment room.
Manning seems confident that Mark Sykes will be fine to play Norwich having withdrawn the Republic of Ireland international in the second half at St Mary’s due to fatigue. Sykes, Jason Knight and Sam Bell have played extensively for club and country over the last few weeks, but should be given the green light to start, if selected, for tomorrow’s clash.
Academy midfielder Jed Meerholz has also trained with the first-team this week, putting him in line for a possible call-up to the matchday squad at Ashton Gate.
“The rest are all good to go,” added Manning. “We don’t have huge numbers to rotate, I’m fully aware of that, so we have to be sensible, we have to manage it correctly, but if you look at it, they’re (the international players) all quite robust and what you tend to see is, their outputs – the types of players they are – are very different to a centre-back or centremidfielder; more explosive, so they’re the bits where we have to be a bit more careful with overloading.
“We’ve got an incredible facility here that allows them to concentrate and do some really good work on recovery, but that’s the beauty of Championship and English League football, right? You’re SaturdayWednesday-Sunday and it’s not going to ease off over Christmas.
“It’s that blend of finding the right balance in looking after them, but sometimes you have to play through it because we want to win games.”