Lavery, Madine, Yates and Fiorini: Blackpool's injury state of play following Reading defeat
Blackpool’s hamstring curse has struck again with Shayne Lavery becoming the latest player to suffer.
The striker lasted just 21 minutes against Reading on Saturday before he was forced to hobble off to be replaced by Ian Poveda.
That left Gary Madine, who had just returned from a four-match suspension, as Blackpool’s only fit and available striker, although he later felt his hamstring.
Fortunately he was able to carry on, although Mick McCarthy did eventually bring him off with 10 minutes left to take care of him.
Addressing the strikers’ knocks, McCarthy said: “Shayne hurt his hamstring. We don’t know the extent of it yet, but he’ll be assessed in the week.
“As for Gaz, he’s another one whose hamstring tightened up, so at the end when we were 3-0 down I just took him off to protect him.”
It comes after the Seasiders lost top goalscorer Jerry Yates to a setback during the midweek defeat to Blackburn Rovers.
McCarthy had hoped it was a small issue with Yates’ lower back, but the veteran boss has now confirmed he’s also come down with the hamstring curse.
When asked how long he’ll be out for, he said: “I don’t know, that’s a difficult one because his hamstring is tight but hopefully he’ll be alright for Burnley.”
Hamstring injuries are something that have plagued Blackpool for a year or two, but in recent weeks it’s become noticeably worse.
“I don’t know why that is,” McCarthy said “I can’t answer that. I’m not a physio. I’ve no idea on that one.”
Lewis Fiorini was left out for a second game running despite the midfielder declaring before the game he was fit and available.
The 20-year-old made his return from six months out last weekend by playing the first-half of the 1-0 win against Stoke City.
But since then he’s not featured in either match day squad against Blackburn or Reading.
“Lewis trained today (Saturday),” McCarthy explained.
“He had 45 minutes so to come back and play 90 minutes in the Championship, it’s not enough.
“He trained today, he will be training on Monday and then he’ll be playing in the development squad on Tuesday - hopefully for 90 minutes - and then he’ll be in a better place to start a game and finish a game.”