Wounded Warriors

The World Cup injury bug is spreading fast. Australia and England have both been seriously afflicted – although you could argue that the loss of Rooney is a blow to the whole Cup. What will England do without Rooney? Indeed, what would the Warriors do without Yorke?

In the past few days I’ve been reading reports that a few of our foriegn-based Warriors have also been hit by the bug. Falkirk will be resting our Little Magician, Russell Latapy, for the rest of the season so that he can recuperate from a (minor) ‘knee knock.’ Cornell Glen pulled up with a hamstring injury over the weekend. Goalie Kelvin Jack is still struggling with his tendonitis.

None of these are quite a broken metasarsal, fortunately. Still, Bob anticipated my thoughts with this week’s Big Question: what Warrior could we least afford to lose?

There are the obvious responses: Captain Yorke, playmaker Latapy, goalscoring Stern John. Our backline could scarcely hope to tame the English Lions without Dennis Lawrence. Our midfield would suffer in both aesthetics and creativity without Carlos Edwards, and I’d hate to see anything happen to Birchall. Glen is now in doubt as a starting forward, so Jason Scotland definitely needs to be match fit.

Hmm! I’m lapsing into superstition here, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that none of our Warriors will be wounded in our upcoming battles – err, friendlies.

Afterthought: I’ve realised that there’s one Warrior who is even more important than Yorke or Stern: Beenhakker, of course.