Zoltan Gera facing lengthy spell on the side
Monday 28th November 2011, 10:58AM GMT.
Albion star Zoltan Gera was today facing a lengthy lay-off after scans revealed he suffered a “serious knee injury” in Saturday’s defeat to Tottenham.
Baggies boss Roy Hodgson ruled out Gera for the “foreseeable future” today but the club are refusing to discuss an exact timescale until further tests are completed this week.
Gera suffered a sickening twist of his left knee while changing direction in Saturday’s 3-1 loss and initial tests have revealed ligament damage.
Hodgson said: “Zoltan has done really well since coming into the team three games ago and his performances quickly justified how highly we rate him.
“We still don’t know for sure how long he will be out for but we know we won’t be able to call on his services for the foreseeable future.
“This will be a major blow both on the training pitch and the match arena.
“Zoltan is now in the hands of our excellent medical and sports science department and we just have to hope and pray that his stint on the sidelines is not an overly prolonged one.”
Gera only returned to action a month ago after beginning the season sidelined after summer ankle surgery.
He has made just three first-team appearances since re-signing for a second stint with the Baggies in the close season following three years away from the club at Fulham.
But the emergence of Gera’s forward partnership with Shane Long coincided with a home win against Bolton last week and a positive start to Saturday’s game – the Baggies were 1-0 up when Gera limped off before going on to lose 3-1.
Meanwhile, Hodgson offered a measured response to the award of Tottenham’s penalty for a shove by Nicky Shorey on Aaron Lennon – the third disputed spot-kick awarded against his side in successive home games.
“I think we’ve had more penalties given against us than any other team,” he said.
“I see players go down in our penalty area after challenges that don’t look particularly vicious.
“Then I see our players go down in the penalty area under challenges that don’t look particularly vicious and the referee makes the decision which ones to give and which ones not to give.”
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Just heard on Sky that its a bad injury. Gutted for Zolly and worried for us as he gives us something we don’t seem to have otherwise – proper attacking link up play.
Let’s hope Dorrens has been watching closely cos he is the nearest we have to Zoltan.
Get well soon mate !!!
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Out for the foreseeable future. I hope its not crutiate or however you spell it. That could be a serious problem of ever returning at his age.
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Gutted to say the least, but at least Pete is coming back to match fitness.
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A reminder of how football the beautiful can quickly become football the crippler. Sometimes for life. Our hero Bomber Brown has two plastic hips now. I know he wouldn’t change his achievements on the pitch, but it’s a huge cross to bear every day. Gera is in good hands and should be fine in time. Had he gone off from a savage tackle, we would all be ballistic by now. Funny old game, innit?
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Hope we have good news about Zoltan, although Mulumbu, Odenwingie, Tchoyi, Dorrans, Reid, Scharner or Cox could cover.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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4 Cyril Randle
Your right Cyril, we sometimes forget what a battering a footballers body takes over the course of a career and when they reach 30 the injuries become more frequent and take longer to recover from. It’s a great shame because Gera looked as good as anything Tottenham had until he was injured. I was very disappointed with the performance of Simon Cox when he replaced Gera but he missed two good chances and contributed little to the team. I thought playing with Shane Long his Irish compatriot might inspire him but it did not. As there are fitness doubts about Graham Dorrans and Peter Odemwingie a new addition to the squad should be considered.
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Same again over the next three matches, plus a little more composure in front of goal and we shall all have a good X-mass, Cheers.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
P.S. My computer is out of hospital Thursday.
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terrible shame. he works his nackers off to regain fitness, just starts to recapture the form that we all know and love him for, and now this. poor chap must be gutted
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That’s an absolute nightmare for Zoltan and the team, get well soon Zolly.
On the bright side at least we have the saviour Simon Cox to come in and work his magic again!!! Seriously though Cox did not make the most of a decent run out on Saturday. Looks like him and Tchoyi are just battling it out for the ‘impact sub’ role this season and as I said on here last week, Somen more than edges it for me at the minute.
Congratulations to James Morrison, thought he was absolutely outstanding on Saturday after mostly mediocracy from him over the last 12 months.
Good performance overall though at the weekend, bring on the 6 pointers over the next 3 weeks!!!!
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Reall shame zolly and long looked the reall deal together. Just hope for a speedy recovery. Agree with those praising mozzas performance, he looks so much better through the middle. As for geras replacement id try dorrans if fit personally. I wouldn’t change formation I think this suits us at the moment, so dorrans or tchoyi for me. Good to see odemwingie back, hope he gets fit and hungry asap
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The team certainly looked more balanced with Zolly “in the hole”.
Even the likes of Thomas have been more involved as Gera was getting the ball to them higher up the pitch.
Lets hope Dorrans can do the same if selected – or Tychoi? Much as I love Cox’s work ethic and desire, I’m not sure hes the right player for that role?
RIP Gary Speed!
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Curse our luck, and speedy recovery to you Zoltan. But for once we have had a break of the type Wolves got so much of last season.
QPR have been denied by the Prem to sign an emergency keeper, so the 3rd choice guy up against us on Saturday has been recalled from Boreham Wood (8th in Blue Square South) where he has been sitting for two years on a free because no one would take him off QPRs hands, and then, he has only played a handfull of games there due to injury.
Confirming what all Baggies fans know already, Warnock stated “I’m disappointed with the Premier League that they haven’t seen fit to help us out.It’s absolutely pathetic the decision, but it doesn’t surprise me. There has got to be some common sense but there isn’t with the Premier League. It’s them and us and we’re ‘us’.”
In March 2011, Arsenal were given permission to re-sign free agent Jens Lehmann after an injury to goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, while Manchester City snapped up Marton Fulop from Sunderland in April 2010 as cover for Shay Given.
And Warnock added: “Look at Arsenal last year and Man City.”
He went on to say “If it had been a big club [it would have been different].and “Once again it’s the little club who gets punished.”
Neil, you have my sympathy, I know exactly where your coming from!
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Please give Simon Cox a chance. Accepted he didn’t look good on Saturday but he hasn’t played a lot and it’s difficult to come on and hit your top form straight off. The lad works hard at his game and never stops trying. Try to remember how many were attacking James Morrison a few weeks ago when he hadn’t been playing regularly.
Gutted for Zoltan who was really looking like the missing piece of the jigsaw. Anybody any idea what a ‘considerable amount of time’ means. Are we looking at 3 months or the whole season.
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Massive blow for Gera and WBA. Gera was the missing link between the defensive midfielders and forward(s). To my mind he was a main reason why Albion’s best performances this season were against Bolton and Spurs, where we dominated the midfield for periods. Was really looking forward to his number of assists this season.
Gutted for Gera himself after working all summer to get back. Hope the Albion medical team now work wonders.
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12 WONOH.
Good interesting stuff as usual. Before we celebrate too much though, what’s the betting that this lad chooses Saturday to play like a cross between Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton. I saw QPR on the box recently and they didn’t play like a Colin team of old but I’m sure he’ll have them up to all their old tricks for us.
I never thought I’d agree with anything Colin says but this goes to show. Alladyce, Bruce and many others have said it, the Premier League isn’t a level playing field and the people that run it are too scared to upset the big boys in case they run off to a Euro Super League. Bad thinking as these clubs will do whatever suits them anyway.
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15) Yep, that sounds about right, we’ve already had Phil Neville score his first ever League Cup goal in 29 attempts, just happened to be against us, what are the chances?
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WONOH
Don’t QPR have Radek Cerny who played against Norwich at the weekend? Think the Putnins lad has only been recalled as Cerny is the only fit keeper they have – and even then apparently he’s been carrying an injury for the past 12 months!
Welcome back to the Premiership QPR!
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13)Could give this ago to the tune of Give Peace a Chance,
Ev’rybody’s talking about injuries,
contusions, confusions,
and cartilage, particular, articular,
fusions, and fissions, knee caps, go bye byes
All we are saying is give Cox a chance,
All we are saying is give Cox a chance,
(in the words of Charles Azenuff, Don’t Shoot the Pianist!!)
17) I’ve read some where that Cerny is 50/50 for Saturday, will see if I can find report (for now see last paragraph) so it looks like Elvis will eventually play The Hawthornes, Elvis Putnins that is!
Warnock referring to the Prem decision “They talked about it for two days and then told us that we had to bring back a lad from Borehamwood who has never played in the reserves, who we gave a free transfer to but retained on a non-contract basis.
“If not, then we had to play a 17-year-old that has not played a reserve game yet, which I think is absolutely scandalous not to get any help.
“We genuinely lost two keepers and have Radek, who has had a permanent problem all season and only played two reserve games, yet the Premier League cannot help us.”
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With reference the prem having a different agenda for clubs like us I see the officials involved in the penalty decision against Man Utd at the weekend have been dropped….. it’s their own fault as they obviously didn’t read the rule book before hand which clearly states that Man Utd must not have any decision go against them which may cause Sir Alex Ferguson to moan.
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19 Happy.
I was just about to comment that that’s funny but it’s not is it. Not for the rest of us anyway.
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19 Happy.
And just to rub salt into the wounds, no action will be taken against Ferguson over his comments. No doubt they’ve just apologised to him and promised that they’ll try harder to please him in future.
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