Blackpool boss dicusses potential injury boost

Blackpool Gazette

Steve Bruce states Albie Morgan could be close to returning to action for Blackpool this weekend.

Transcript

00:00How big a boost is it to have Albie Morgan a little bit closer to action?

00:04Well, it's like everything, isn't it?

00:05When you miss your good players when they're not playing.

00:09And we know what sort of contribution Albie has on the team

00:12in terms of goal assists and goals and his ability to get around the pitch.

00:17He's a very, very good player.

00:19He was one of our standout players for me last year when he was fit and available.

00:23For him to have the similar sort of injuries he had this time last year

00:26is quite remarkable.

00:28But as they say, shit happens.

00:31Excuse my French.

00:33And it's been unfortunate for us.

00:35Yeah, he was one of our players that if he was available you'd pick him.

00:37And he always played well even with, obviously, he's got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

00:41So even with that going on in the background he did very well.

00:43I came through it remarkably well.

00:45We knew there was something wrong with him.

00:47He's tailed off.

00:49He's capable of huge numbers in terms of his fitness and his running stats.

00:55And we knew there was something wrong with him.

00:56He dropped off a cliff.

00:58And thankfully we've identified where it was.

01:01It wasn't anything more sinister than that.

01:03And he now has a constant daily management programme where he manages very, very well.

01:10And to be fair, it didn't take him back long to get up and running again.

01:13He's infectious in the team, in and around it.

01:16Good to be back.

01:18Good to have your big players back.

01:19Yeah, if he can come back on Saturday, he's got a few new faces to work with.

01:23Obviously, he knows Lee Evans very well.

01:24But then George Winnieman and Jordan Brown.

01:26Yeah, it's practically a brand new team.

01:30But he's essential to be part of it.

01:33And he'll get to know his teammates like everybody else.

01:36A player who's not played too much this season is Zach Ashworth.

01:39Obviously, you gave him a goal last year a couple of times, but he struggled to get in.

01:42So what's the plan with him throughout the next few weeks?

01:44Well, he's here. He's around the squad.

01:47And, you know, in his position at left-back, we have got Coulson and husband and him.

01:53So it's a constant fight.

01:55He's got a fight on his hands to be above them too.

01:58But if he's called on, then I'm sure he won't let anybody down.

02:01Yeah, is he sure signs that he's willing to do that, willing to fight?

02:04He's definitely his place.

02:05Oh, yeah, yeah. The kid's a really, really good player.

02:07I mean, you see, he wants to play.

02:09He wants to play like they all do.

02:11But he can only pick 11 and at the moment he's behind Coulson in particular.

02:18On the other side of defence, on Tuesday night, he chose by Jordan Brown at right-back.

02:21Is that somewhere you can see him playing quite regularly?

02:23Well, he's played there before, so I knew he could play there.

02:26And it's just the accumulation of numbers for Andy at the moment,

02:31who's trying to make his recovery and trying to recover as well as he can.

02:35So, you know, we've lost Adele, who was a big player for us in that position last year.

02:41And, of course, Danny, unfortunately, gets injured at Doncaster the other week there.

02:46So we're a little bit short in that department at the moment.

02:49But hopefully Danny's back on the grass and hopefully training next week.

02:53So we can look forward to him being in and around it too.

02:56I know we probably want to ask about his killing Carassi up front.

02:58Obviously, a young player, I had some long last year.

03:00What's the plan for him? Is he looking for him along?

03:01I would think so. That was something that we're going to explore.

03:05He needs to go and play somewhere, I think that.

03:08So if we're not going to get him game time with us, then we might look into that.

03:13Yeah, is he something that you do want to sort of keep around when he's in that alone

03:15in case, obviously, we can see him progress?

03:18We need to see him progress, don't we? He needs to go and play.

03:21And we're wary of it.

03:23I think we've got adequate cover in our striking positions.

03:27So he might be one that goes out.

03:29His fitness is a big thing as well.

03:30Obviously, Salford, he's in and out because of injury.

03:33Yeah, yeah.

03:34He's unfortunate.

03:35He has to stay well.

03:36He's picked up an awful hamstring injury.

03:38Let's hope it's the last one of them.

03:40But he's had a good pre-season.

03:41He's trained hard, trained well.

03:43Just needs games.

03:44In terms of your own business,

03:46obviously last week you said you were pretty pleased with what was going on.

03:48But is there anything else in the background?

03:50Anything else that you walked up for?

03:51I've said to you from day one,

03:53my job is to always never be satisfied.

03:56We'll see.

03:56But all of a sudden,

03:58if I get the injuries back

04:00and what we've got,

04:02we've walked through the door,

04:03then I do believe we've got a very confident squad

04:05of what we've tried to achieve.

04:07So,

04:08never say never,

04:09but I'm pretty happy

04:11with what we've done so far.

04:12There's no need for you to act quickly.

04:14Maybe a fortnight ago

04:14there was a bit of panic in your role.

04:16No, no.

04:16Well, we still didn't try to panic then.

04:19You know,

04:19we knew it was going to be

04:21a long drawn out thing

04:23and in the end,

04:24we've got three players in a week

04:26or something it was.

04:27So, you know,

04:28that's the way this football works.

04:30We've been on at them

04:30for week after week after week

04:32and three of them arrive at once.

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