How injuries are affecting the season

One of the things that has been apparant this season is the number of players who have been unavailable for selection through injury so far. At times Stuart Pearce has had upto seven players unavailable for selection who could easily be considered for a first team spot (either starting or on the bench).

Looking through the squad, the number of games lost is considerable already, considering the (still) relatively early stage of the season we are at:

Goalkeeper:
Isaksson 8
Weaver 1

Defence:
Onouha 8
Trabelsi 3

Midfield:
Reyna 2
Dabo 1
Ireland 1
Beasley 1

Attack:
Vassell 5

I don't know how precise the figures may be as I've calculated it from when players are ruled out from injury, rather than not considered 'match fit' - and of course doesn't include the suspensions to Corradi, Dabo and Thatcher.

A supposed sign of the strength of your squad is to take a look at the make-up of the bench, and on Saturday the bench included Schmeichel, Johnson, Miller in addition to the more veteran Reyna and Dickov.

It is a clearly a sign that Pearce really doesn't have a great deal of option personnel wise at present to try and shake things up, and one of the worrying aspects of the casualty list is the number of injuries that have been suffered in training rather than in games themselves.

With the thin squad that we currently possess, it is something we can ill-afford to continue happening.