Neil Sullivan pens his regular blog for dcfc.co.uk from the Derby County medical room.
We go into the Stoke City game with a fairly healthy squad for the Gaffer to choose from. One addition in the treatment room this week though has been our leading goalscorer Theo Robinson. Theo received a blow to his calf early on in the game at Burnley last week and it left him with a rather large and deep bruise. As I write this blog it is still unclear whether Theo will recover in time to play some part this afternoon, but we will be working with him around the clock to give him the best possible chance.
Mark O'Brien visited the knee specialist last week for his routine check up and he was delighted with his progress so far. Mark is doing very well to hide his frustration and boredom at the moment as he goes through the early stages of his rehabilitation programme. Our very own Olly Murs look-a-like actually sings his way through the day. You might think that's nice and he must be happy, but unfortunately for the rest of us the looks are as far as the similarities go!
Goalkeeper Saul Deeney continues to improve with his shoulder injury. Saul suffered some nerve damage and this is taking time to recover from. We are not expecting him to re-join full training for a few more months yet, but the hard work and patience is paying off for him.
Nathan Tyson has recovered very well from his minor setback. The last two weeks have seen Nathan put a lot of hard work in and as a result he is in contention for the squad this weekend.
On The Funny Side
Jeff Hendrick played in the Derbyshire Senior Cup last week against Pinxton after recovering from his ankle injury, which we were delighted about. After the match Jeff complained that his big toe was very sore, and upon taking his boots off revealed a blackened big toenail which had a collection of blood underneath it.
Now the obvious way to pick up such an injury is to have your foot trodden on, but when questioned Jeff confirmed that this hadn't been the case.
He said: "It feels like my boot was too tight and rubbing against my toe".
He reached down and picked up his boot and noticed the initials 'TC' on it. Jeff had played 70 minutes with his own left boot, but Tomasz Cywka's right boot. The boots were the same make and style...but Tomasz's was a size smaller!
Another classic!
