Matt Taylor insists Shrewsbury Town hitting 'limit' as treatment room gets even busier
Matt Taylor says his Shrewsbury Town squad are ‘nearing the limit’ of what they can cope with injury-wise.
Salop got a brave 2-1 victory at the Croud Meadow on Saturday as they overcame Port Vale to keep up their excellent form at the Meadow, which has seen them take 19 points from 10 home games in League One.
But it was not all positive for Town as their injury list grew ever deeper.
Tom Flanagan went off in the seventh minute with what looked like a nasty knee injury, and Taylor Perry went off at half-time with tight hamstrings.
This was after Jason Sraha and Elliot Thorpe had been ruled out before kick-off, and Taylor was left frustrated by the growing injury list.
Treatment
He said: “We are now getting to somewhere near the limit. If the two players who came off against Port Vale are not available that gives us nine in the treatment room – that is not what we need.
“Before the game, we had seven in the treatment room, that is seven first-team players.
“We have got to as a football club, get through it, we need to get those players out of the treatment room as soon as possible because it is going to be important with the schedule coming up.”
Town now have nine first-team players on the sidelines, and they have another two games coming up this week.
First, they make the trip to Exeter on Tuesday evening before they then have a game against Notts County on Friday night in the second round of the FA Cup.
Taylor says he and his staff have given great thought to the way they do things to try and make sure they do not pick up injuries, but he feels there is little they can do about it.
“We have had lots of conversations as a group of staff and including the support staff the football staff that is everybody,” he continued. “We have questioned and I have questioned if what we are doing is right. I think the answer to that is ‘yes’. We are not picking up muscle strain after muscle strain.
“The injuries we are getting I have never seen anything like it. I genuinely haven’t.
“What we cannot do is stand here and use it as an excuse. I have got to stand here and use it as a driving tool for players that are fit.
“As much as you want to focus on and make sure everybody in the squad is OK it is really difficult.
“We have got some exceptional players who are not available to be picked at the moment, and that is disappointing.
“But that is the way it is.”
Town’s away form has been a challenge and they will want to make their last away defeat a distance memory – the 4-0 loss at Blackpool – but they have been overcoming challenges of late, and it is the next one for Taylor and his staff to conquer.
