Dutch delight for Graham Dorrans
Saturday 23rd April 2011, 12:30PM BST.
Albion boss Roy Hodgson today backed Graham Dorrans to rebound from his troubled season after the midfielder got the ‘all clear’ from a top ankle specialist.
Dorrans visited a surgeon in Amsterdam last week and was told he does not need surgery to heal his twisted right ankle. But he is still facing a fight to play again this season.
The Scotland international has played just three times for Hodgson but the Baggies head coach has handed Dorrans a major vote of confidence.
“He scored a wonder-goal against West Ham and then only played against Wolves and Stoke, but I know enough about Graham Dorrans and have seen him enough to know he’s a very good player and a very valuable member of our squad, so he needn’t have any fears in that respect,” said Hodgson.
“He is disappointed but we have all done our best to keep him in the most cheerful state of mind we can and to let him know we believe in him.
“I think he will come back stronger because I don’t think he’s a weak person mentally at all, in fact it’s quite the opposite.
“He is strong mentally and the unpleasant experience this season compared to the wonderful one last season will make him stronger for next season.”
And Hodgson said Baggies medics were pleased to have their methods supported by the Dutch specialist.
“He has been missing for a while but he’s making progress and we’re pleased about that,” he said.
“It was good for us to know that he doesn’t need an operation and the way we’re treating the injury is the right way.
“It was quite a nasty ankle injury on a part of the body where he’s had problems before and I always thought it would take a bit longer than our original optimistic prognosis.
“But he is working very hard and he had a minor setback last week and that’s why we sent him to the specialist but the good news was he came back with a clean bill of health. Realistically I will be very lucky if I see him back before the end of the season though.”
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