Why so many injured players?
Injuries to players have been discussed in various threads here. Looking at the bigger picture, it begs the question why so many players get "injured" so close to international games, immediately after games or between games. I have seen reports where a player sustained and "injury" in the 90th minute of a club game which happneed to be the last one before an international.
Historically speaking, players withdraw from squads through "injury" at the drop of a hat (or a word from the club manager in their ear). Never before has Ireland had so many players out through injury and the question must be why? Add to this, the injuries since the Cyprus game, seemingly due to poor warm-down sessions, delayed and long flights, etc. which call into question the abilities of the "highly skilled backroom team" mentioned BY Blood in his latest speil.
Call me cynical but it seems to me that Staunton's relationships with clubs is questionable, given Brian Kerr's unique style of handling "injuries" and withdrawals. Yet Staunton seems to think it is all bad luck!
If you picked a team for tonight and included those dubious "injuries" (i.e a goalkeeper pulling a hamstring after a game?) it would be strong enough, I suspect.
