DUNNE FACING ANKLE SURGERY
Manchester City defender Richard Dunne will miss his side's final push for a
UEFA Cup place to undergo ankle surgery.
The 25-year-old Republic of Ireland international needs an operation on each
ankle and City have decided not to wait until the end of the season.
Dunne, who underwent the first of those operations yesterday, will now miss
City's final Barclays Premiership matches against Aston Villa and
Middlesbrough.
Manager Stuart Pearce, who is hoping to be appointed beyond the end of the
season, told the club's official website, www.mcfc.co.uk: ``I could from a
personal point of view have said that I wanted Richard to wait until the end of
the season.
``But I have to be honest to him and to the club and I said get it done so
that he can be in top shape for the pre-season.
``The way he has been playing it might have helped my job prospects to have
had Richard available for the last two games of the season.
``But strangely enough there will probably more pressure on the new manager of
this club come the start of next season than there is at the moment.
``It was a common-sense decision from myself to get Richard in for the
operations sooner rather than later.''
Dunne will have his second operation next week and is then expected to require
four to six weeks' rehabilitation.
05/05/2005, 8:20 AM
drummerboy
This I presume rules him out of the Israel and Faroes matches. Hope nothing happens to Cunningham, O’Brien and Breen.
05/05/2005, 9:31 AM
eirebhoy
Bugger. :( I wake up today to find Dunne and Duff are major doubts for the upcoming games.
It looks like Dunne is pretty much certain to miss out but with over 4 weeks to go to Israel I think Duff must have a very good chance of recovery. No? He actually trained on Monday and the complaint was a "tight" hamstring, not a pull or a tear. Chelsea don't need him any more this year so he has 4 weeks of pure recovery time.
But, as Dr. Peepee pointed out, what was the point of playing him against China? It can only have antagonised Mourinho and Kerr needs every bit of goodwill he can get from club managers in this type of situation.
Not as worried about Dunne. O'Brien & Cunningham have done well & I like Breen more than most.
05/05/2005, 10:28 AM
jimbob117
Anyone any idea if dunne could have held out till the internationals or if he was even given the option by his club?
05/05/2005, 8:48 PM
FarBeag
Dunne is out for the rest of the season.What a shame.I guess that answers many people's question on who will partner Kenny for the next two up coming matches.
