From a fans point of view, the Wickham saga is hard to understand when he never seems to be fit.
But one things for sure , no one will be more acutely aware of the risks involved in employing Wickham, than Parish.
Only if you knew the long term prognosis on Wickhams injury situation can you say whether he is worth a contract.
He is a very decent player when fit, he has a knack of picking up goals in the six yard box, something that we could do with on a regular basis, he can also be very effective if played wider.
Only Parish , and the medics, will know what his chances are, but if they are good , and they must be considered good, then at his age he has to be worth another go .

I think Connor is decent but he is a malingerer. Apart from the serious knee injury which incidently he took much longer to recover from than most players, he gets a lot of strains and pulls where the player himself tells the physio how it is feeling so basically he can do what we would all like to do which is write your own sicknote.

Well, it certainly wasn't anything approaching expertise!

Wickham, Benteke, Sakho, Hodgson all out, free up some cash, clear out the medical room, play some decent football. Simples!

That's a totally valid opinion. As is the one of those who'd lean towards giving him one last season. Especially after an impressive couple of games with the U23s. Time will tell I guess.

It's an interesting subject generally, the notion of a player being injury prone. I mean, football clubs go to ridiculous lengths to get the most out of the investment they make in players - their diet, weight, even thier sleep is monitored and controlled. Some clubs assess players psychologically before signing them, having looked into as many aspects of their life as possible. In that context I find it hard to believe that a medical is anything other than utterly thorough, yet so many players with poor injury records get contracts.

I get that a doctor might be able to tell if a player has recovered fully from a specific serious injury, and that presuming someone like Wickham passes tests on the bad knee injury he had, he then need only be free of serious, long term injuries at the time of the medical and he can sign a new contract. He is, after all, fit and well at that time, or at least not suffering from an injury bound to keep him out for long.

Still though, how does the process factor in all those weeks, months and years missed through a series of unrelated injuries, or through the recurrence of an injury from which a full recovery had been made?

Is there a medical reason players like Wickham, or Sturidge, Wiltshire, Welbeck etc get so very many injuries? Is it literally just bad luck? The football industry must have ploughed millions into understanding it, yet without any success as far as I can see.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (31 Mar 2021 11.16pm)