Coventry City’s injury list and return dates ahead of Bristol City include Sheaf, Palmer, Kelly, O’Hare, and Tavares.
Coventry City injury news from CoventryLive as we examine the current status of play for Mark Robins’ absent players and when they are expected to return.
Mark Robins is still missing five first-team players as Coventry City return to action following the latest international break. The two-week break in the schedule comes at a pleasant moment for the Sky Blues manager, who has had to make do and mend in recent weeks due to so many players of his senior squad being sidelined with injury.
After a rough start to the season, two weeks without a competitive game allows damaged bodies to recover. In the early stages of the season, the treatment room has been busier than usual, as evidenced by a makeshift midfield in the latter stages of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Norwich City, in which centre-half Joel Latibeaudiere was deployed in a holding role in the middle of the park for the first time, albeit the position he plays for Jamaica.
Robins has previously been reluctant to deploy the summer signing from Swansea in that role but it’s been a case of needs must with so many casualties in an area of the pitch that already lacks strengthen in depth due to the failure to sign an alternative to Gustavo Hamer when he was sold to Sheffield United late on in the summer transfer window. Sky Blues fans will be hoping for more available options when they travel to Bristol City on Saturday (October 21). Here is a complete injury round-up, including potential return dates.
City’s best holding midfielder suffered an adductor strain in training following the Watford game with the prognosis being that he’d be out for a minimum of six weeks. He returned to the grass in the week leading up to the Norwich match (at the five week stage) and is therefore hoped to be back in full contact training this week (week seven) when the Sky Blues build into the Bristol City game.
The playmaker and most creative player in the squad sustained the identical adductor rip injury as Sheaf, which is thought to have occurred during the 3-2 loss at Cardiff City. Palmer is presently in week five of his rehabilitation after being ruled out with an early prognosis of six to eight weeks.
Liam Kelly
The holding midfielder limped off midway through the first half against Blackburn, with the initial prognosis a hamstring tear. Although Robins feared the worst, the player insisted it was not that bad and refused a scan which would have confirmed the full extent of the injury.
Possible return date: It’s a case of wait and see but with the two week international break providing more time, Kelly will be hoping to declare himself fit to face his former club Bristol City this weekend (Oct 21).
Callum O’Hare
The exciting attacking midfielder suffered a ruptured ACL at Sheffield United on Boxing Day last year, putting him out for a minimum of nine months. He’s been a huge miss both last season and this but Robins is determined not to rush him back. O’Hare has been back in full contact training for the last few weeks and his manager admitted he was tempted to give him game time in the Under-21s recently. However, he opted for a more cautious approach and plans to put the player through another block of training this week to continue to build up his strength and fitness. City don’t play another development squad game until the end of the month but there is an in-house match planned for this week, in which he might well get a bit of game time.
