Weekend briefing: Ins, outs and injury doubts for the weekend football

Injury briefing

Battered Valencia on a slippery slope

Valencia’s Champions League prospects are looking bleak following Wednesday’s 4-1 demolition at Atalanta and their top-four hopes in Spain aren’t going to be looking much rosier if they can’t get key players fit quickly.

Los Che are smarting after their midweek mauling at the San Siro, a game in which they were missing seven players through injury.

The biggest problems are at the back where central defensive duo Gabriel Paulista and Ezequiel Garay look to have been ruled out for the season.

Since Garay’s injury three weeks ago Valencia have played four, won none, and conceded 11 goals.

Rodrigo’s knee injury meant he couldn’t fly to Italy and he looks unlikely to be involved at Sociedad in La Liga.

Red-hot Port Vale look in great shape

Port Vale made light of one or two key absences as they thrashed Colchester 3-0 on Saturday and Sky Bet League Two’s form team are going to be stronger still at Walsall.

Vale have roared into the playoff places having picked up 13 points from their last five matches, a sequence which has included wins over promotion rivals Exeter and Northampton.

They crushed Colchester minus the suspended duo of six-goal Tom Pope and first-choice right-back James Gibbons while winger David Amoo and midfielder Jake Taylor were crocked.

Pope and Gibbons are over their bans while Amoo and Taylor are back in training – though boss John Askey may not even want to change his winning team at the Bescot.

Bologna options are limited

Bologna’s three-game winning streak came to a spectacular end last weekend when they crashed 3-0 at home to Genoa.

Midfielder Jerdy Schouten and left-back Stefano Denswil were both sent off in the defeat and will sit out Saturday’s showdown with Udinese.

That poses a headache for boss Sinisa Mihajlovic. who is already under strain because of injuries to Roberto Soriano, Federico Santander, Nicola Sansone, Gary Medel, Mitchell Dijks and Ladislav Krejci.

Things are looking up for Burnley

Chris Wood limped off in Burnley’s 2-1 win at Southampton last Saturday but he could be fit for the visit of Bournemouth.

Wood lasted just 22 minutes at St Mary’s before he had to be replaced by Matej Vydra, who went on to score the winner.

Sean Dyche will have Johann Berg Gudmundsson available after a six-week absence.

Forest Green Rovers are not returning to fitness

Forest Green's failure to win in seven games has seen them plunge out of the Sky Bet League Two playoff places and injuries aren’t helping.

New signing Odin Bailey, snapped up from Birmingham in the window, has picked up an ankle injury which has ruled him out for the season.

Dominic Bernard and Dayle Grubb have been sidelined by injuries, while Liam Shephard, Joe Mills, Matt Mills and Shaun McCoulsky could all miss the rest of the campaign.

Gaffer Tracker

Alex Revell - Stevenage

The Mark Sampson-Alex Revell dream ticket turned into a disaster earlier this season, so it’s a brave shout by the Stevenage board to give them another shot at keeping the club in the EFL.

The twist this time is that Revell, not Sampson, is officially in charge following Graham Westley’s umpteenth exit from Broadhall Way after just two months in the job.

Revell, who has never managed, has immediately tapped up Russell Slade for help, though the much-travelled frontman might as well have phoned Pep Guardiola as they look doomed.

Stevenage somehow have to find eight points to merely catch the teams above them and since they are on a run of six straight defeats, Revell’s task seems pretty much impossible.

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