Shadow Puppets

See, this is why Craig Hope is a bellend. Tripps and his family have been in New York all week, correct. But they flew back today, as they were always planning to. Not with any specific aim of sealing any deal to anywhere… just because that’s the fucking flight they booked home. Absolute cockwomble.

Or the player… or those close to the player… ?

Asked again and was told the same. He isn’t pushing for any move and NUFC have no intention of selling. I’ll caveat it all by saying, of course, things can change if big offers come in, but that’s what I’ve been told three times now by people who most definitely know the craic. (And I know with 99% certainty that these “personal” issues are completely fabricated… unless of course my source(s) are lying to my face)

He left the England camp because of a burglary at his home. And the rumours surrounding his personal life, as had been confirmed multiple times, was made up by a Sunderland fan.

Don’t worry. It’s nonsense (at least in January). And those rumours were bullshit as well, by the way. (It shouldn’t really have needed saying)

I can tell you, from very close to the horses mouth, that this story is complete bullshit. Bayern may very well be interested, but he’s 100% not leaving and we would not remotely entertain the idea.

There's absolutely loads of games to play still. Even if we don't get another point in January, it's absolutely possible that a fit squad can put a run together to push top 7.

Re: Gibbs White… if it’s worth anything at all, my Forest supporting mate finds him infuriating.

It isn’t healing as quickly as they’d hoped. Looking at mid February at the earliest.

I don’t know who needs to hear it again, but Tino has been carrying a muscle fatigue “injury” for the past week or so. (Source: one of his family members) You may have noticed him pull up uncomfortable once or twice in the Chelsea game. Hence why he hasn’t started the last two games. They’re managing his minutes to try to avoid a more serious injury.

In my eyes, it’s quite simple what is happening. An incredibly fatigued squad leads to poor results which leads to a loss of confidence. It was completely evident today. I don’t think fatigue played any part, but damaged confidence certainly did. It’s a difficult rut to get out of, but Eddie will manage it.

See above

For the record, the reason that Livramento hasn’t started the last couple of games is a tightness in his thigh. A fatigue based injury.

He did it because the whole of the Gallowgate were already singing it for around 5 mins beforehand.

It's a freak one.

Now's probably not the right time to tell you all that Elliot Anderson won't be back until February at the earliest. His broken bone in his back isn't healing up as quickly as they'd hoped. Initial specialist assessment was 8 weeks, but it's been 7 and it's nowhere near healed. Again, that's not OUR medical department. That's specialists advising on the best course of action. We don't have a great deal of control over how quickly a bone heals.

Targett got injured with a freak groin injury that was completely unrelated to his previous one. Botman, last I heard, hasn't had any setback. They're just taking it really slow to hopefully avoid an 8-9 month operation layoff.

No, he was back for ages, and his injury is not related to the first one.

Isak and Willock. That's all right?

Barnes' injury hasn't reoccured. A setback isn't a reoccurrence. A setback is... it's taking longer than we first thought.

It is absolutely 100% true. The source on the Botman stuff is the horses mouth. And the source for the physio info is my brother-in-law, who is a sports physio. Is our injury re-occurence rate really astonishing? Willock this season? Isak last season? Other than that, what exactly has re-occured? Murphy's shoulder doesn't count because that is and always has been a major possibility with shoulder dislocations. You hope it won't happen again but there's every chance it will. It's a ballache of an operation to recover from so you try to avoid it. Some players have had setbacks, yes, but that is part and parcel of football injuries... always has been.

It's not the medical department. In Botman's case, he has been backwards and forwards to the Netherlands for specialist treatment / assessment, and the concensus from the specialists was to just continue to build his fitness back up and physio work. There is the potential he would need an operation IF the physio work isn't successful or he breaks down again (which would mean an 8 month layoff by the way). But it's nothing to do with an issue in our medical department. Same with Barnes... they attempt to avoid operations if at all possible. Specialists will always advise to build back to fitness with physio work before thinking about operations. The only one I think could be levelled at our medical team is the Willock re-occurence.

Trippier definitely came off injured by the way… he was limping noticeably after the game.

Zing ?

I would be hugely surprised if that was true. I was talking to him after the Man Utd game and he was still visibly in pain. Unless something has miraculously changed in the last two weeks.