Holden out for a quick recovery: Stu at Bolton [R]

Stu's original injury required a screw in the bone to hold everything together. I often think surgeries for broken bones for athletes to get them back in the game faster are riskier than just letting the bone heal naturally and sometimes just makes things worse but in this case the screw appears to have been necessary.

Stu didn't come back too soon. In fact he went easy on it to work his way up to full speed. Stu came back and was playing partial games with the reserve team ok. What happened was during his triumphant MotM return in the FA cup match the screw came loose and rolled around in his knee socket and tore all the cartilage up. I don't think that's a case of coming back too soon. That's a case of really bad luck. For example: my cousin got hit by a car and shattered his shin bone. They had to put a rod and 2 screws in his leg to repair it. Once he had recovered one of the screws came out and caused such a nasty infection he almost lost his leg. He's already planning his op to remove the second screw despite the rehab he'll have because he's paranoid.

I suppose a cleanup op would be normal after all the damage had to be repaired. If its as simple of an issue as people are saying then it's probably no big deal and is probably routine. If however its indicative of a chronic issue then that is a very bad thing.

 

I've seen the play. I referee matches. There is no need for me to review it. I never said it wasn't a red card. My point was that this happened in a highly competitive close game. Most defenders would go in for a similar challenge (and most end up without injury) on a 50/50 ball (it was a bad pass that led for the attacker to have to challenge the way he did). Evans had to make a split second decision, in this case which had disasterous results. The circumstances were not for some guy to go cheap shotting another. At this level, yes sometimes players get effed up.

 

I hope Stu keeps reminding himself how fantastic he was that season, and how he can make it back to that level. Bolton totally fell apart without him. They were playing really quality soccer, even against the big boys of Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal- and Stu played a huge role in that. He was having as good a season as Dempsey that year, and did things that no American player has ever done to that point.

I truly hope he will be the same player on the pitch as we last saw.

 

Again, the whole point of a straight red card when you're not the last man is that it is in no way a "completely fair challenge." Not only do most defenders not tackle that way (we would see a lot more exposed bone), but the intention of the rule is to discourage any defender from ever tackling that way. Cheap shot is a straw man. This was more dangerous than a cheap shot.

 

http://www.ussoccerplayers.com/ussoccerplayers/2012/08/holden-progressing.html

 

Meniscus tears are no joke. Ended Ledley King's career & more obscurely, Jamie Redknapp's.

As for the challenge from Evans, it was an honest attempt to win the ball that he mistimed and was rightly sent off for. He didnt set out to injure Holden, and it was nothing like Shawcross on Ramsey, where Shawcross was trying to foul Ramsey and snapped his leg.

 

yes, but as a professional- you can't do what Evans did either.

Shawcross should be criminally prosecuted.

 

It was a mistimed challenge like countless others up and down the country every week. No malice and not eve n that bad of a challenge. Just unlucky Holden was injured in the process.

 

Huh? A baseball slide at full sprint, studs up, is "not even that bad of a challenge"?? What are you on?

 

One foot, studs up, off the deck = poor challenge and deserved red card, however you see worse challenges every weekend that dont result in any sort of injury.

 

I don't see worse challenges than that every weekend at all. Roy Keane's Revenge tackle wasn't worse than that.

 

The challenge wasn't bad at all and Holden himself went into the challenge in similar fashion. Evans got sent off like he deserved. "Baseball slide", come off it.

If you're talking about the knee high lunge he put on Haland you must be smoking dope. To even compare the two challenges is laughable. Keane deliberately tried to injure Haland and admitted as much.

 

Both players dived in.

 

It's not the fact that Evans went in, but how he went in that was ugly. Surprised to see this much defense of his tackle on here.

 

It was a baseball slide. Straight leg all the way. Except it was a Ty Cobb baseball slide. Just goes to show one straight leg studs up can be just as bad as two.

Keane got the exact same 3 match ban as Evans did. The only reason people know it was on purpose is he wrote it in his book. THEN it became a bigger deal. Carragher's destruction of Nani's leg was similar to the Keane incident, and he only got a yellow. Of course Ferguson defended Keane AFTER his book came out, and called Carragher's tackle, "disgusting."

Are you people lifelong Man Utd fans?

 

I haven't seen the quotes from today yet, but I'd think Ferguson would be going ballistic about Rooney's cut on his leg. How could he have such a gash unless the opposing player had metal showing?

If I recall correctly, Evans had another bad tackle on a player in the EPL in that same period....he seemed to be wanting to demonstrate his commitment at that time, but in a very wrong-headed fashion

 

He did a De Jong WC final karate kick to Drogba's chest, is the one I remember.

 

I just watched it again. Pretty clear red to Evans, no debate about it, however, if Stu had not gone to ground, no one hear would be talking about it, because it is extremely unlikely that Stu would have been hurt. People are discussing this as if it were a drive by shooting.

 

IMHO, Johnny Evans is a bit out of his depth (since we haven't seen him this season with Sir Alex starting a DM ahead of his 4th CB - please tune your sarcasm meters) in the EPL and tries to overcome his lack of ability with hustle and grit. In doing so, he's a danger.

Stu's competitive juices that match overcame the stark realization that Evans really didn't care what it was going to take to win that tackle, including breaking Stu's leg. Discretion can be the better part of valor. Evans is not a dirty player just an out-of-control hack but he still earned his send off and Stu still took some pretty serious damage.

De Jong on the other hand just flat out attacked Stu's leg in an international friendly.

 

Evans tackle was clumsy and mistimed, but I never thought there was any specific intent of malice in it. Of course I may be wrong. We're all just speculating.

 

I can't tell from that if he just landed on his leg accidentally or not. He might have been watching the ball and not looking where he planted. He did get him when Rooney was on the ground, right?

 

Everything I read says it was an accident. Having played, I think I know what happened.

Both players went for the ball. If you look at Rodallega's eyes and head, they look UP to me the whole time. That means that when he landed his plant foot, he wasn't looking where it landed, he was anticipating the next play, starting to look for the ball. He probably didn't fully realize that Rooney had slid under him (it looked like they both awkwardly went into the challenge, so kindof confusing). He might not have been able to control his landing foot.

Unless there is another camera angle on it, I doubt we will be able to tell there was a stomp. From the video, I can easily see where it might have been an accident. If it were close, I would reckon Ferguson would be screaming, but he called it an accident as well.