“The ankle has flared up again”: Blackpool central defender back at square one after injury comeback
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Blackpool central defender is back on the sidelines after returning from injury in midweek.
Blackpool are set to be without Fraser Horsfall for Sunday’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday after the central defender’s return from injury didn’t go to plan.
The 29-year-old came off the bench for the final 20 minutes of Tuesday’s Jersey Mike’s Trophy group stage win against Aston Villa’s U21s.
Horsfall had been out for six months following ankle surgery and went into the game on the back of two training sessions.
Blackpool head coach Ian Evatt had said afterwards it was always part of the plan for Horsfall to have some involvement in midweek.
However, that late cameo in the Seasiders’ 3-2 victory at Bloomfield Road has come at a cost as he is now back on the sidelines.
Speaking before training on Friday, Evatt said: “He hasn’t come through, the ankle has flared up again so we’re back to square one.
“There’s no point me standing here saying something different, not being honest and straight.
“Fraser feels upset. He will be going back to see the specialist and see what the next stage of the recovery is.
“With every ounce of my being I love this club, I’m going to find a solution and deal with the injuries we’ve got back there.
“We’ve had a lot of moments of positivity in games. We started the season great, we’ve had moments in a negative spell where we played well but we weren’t clinical enough in both boxes.”
Horsfall’s absence is another headache Evatt could do without as Blackpool look to improve their poor results on the road in League One this season.
The Seasiders have the division’s second worst away record with three points from 15, while the Owls have only lost one in six league games at Hillsborough.
Asked if the match being moved to Sunday had impacted his planning this week, Evatt said: “It’s slightly different preparation.
“Our usual work is done in a certain structure and way but I can remember playing in the Premier League for Blackpool on ‘Super Sunday’ so hopefully we can get ready in the right way and do what we need to do on Sunday.
“We’ve won two out of the last three (in league and cup), which is better than we were doing before.
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“In those games, we’ve had spells where we’ve done really well.
“The two things I would say we would need to do better is we could have scored more with what we’ve done; in turn, that relieves the pressure on the defensive side of things.
“When we face moments under pressure, we have to defend our box better.
“It’s about getting back to being more resilient and being more ruthless in both boxes.”