Injury crisis leaves Dons down to bare bones for Salop trip
Training was a sparse affair for Warne’s MK Dons this week
It really was bare bones for MK Dons this week with Paul Warne working with just ten fit outfield players, such are their injury concerns.
With long-term injuries to Gethin Jones, Kane Wilson and Aaron Collins, the likes of Nathan Thompson, Kane Thompson-Sommers, Joe Tomlinson and Jack Sanders are en route to recovery but still weeks away from making their full returns.
It has left the head coach with precious little at his disposal heading into Saturday’s clash with struggling Shrewsbury Town.
“It has been a tricky week, we only had 10 outfield players training on Tuesday,” he said on Thursday. “There seems to be a lot of injuries at a lot of clubs, they’re more prevalent in modern football than I remember it.
“Luckily we’ll have Jon Mellish back next week, and Offy will be back as well (both suspended for Shrewsbury).
“(Laurence Maguire) has had another good week of training, which is good, so I feel like they’re all close but not close enough really.”
The depth of the injury crisis at the club has had Warne scratching his head to simply put a team out in the run up to Saturday’s encounter, admitting he has not experienced many periods like this before with so many of his first-teamers missing from active duty.
“I had a similar one last season with a few defenders out and that was tricky,” said the ex-Derby County boss. “This is disappointing. I’m not using it to get away from our form, which has not been great, but we’ve not been able to put out a regular team.
“Also, they’re not just innocuous injuries, but all of them are eight to ten weeks, and I don’t know if we’ll see the right-backs again this year. We’ve had plantar fascia, calf, knee, hamstring, hamstring tendon, broken arm, a bit of everything.
“It’s not like they’re running up mountains, and we’re stood like Indiana Jones with whips making them run through ice ponds or doing anything crazy - it’s just normal training. That makes it so disappointing with these injuries. But it’s always about the next man up.”