Boston United's Medical Bay Busier Than a Saturday Night A&E
With six players sidelined and only two games left, Paul Hurst's injury-ravaged Boston United squad is running on fumes after a 1-1 draw with Wealdstone.
If Paul Hurst fancied a quiet end to the National League season, someone clearly forgot to inform the physio room at Boston United. The Pilgrims' manager is now juggling an injury list that reads like a shopping receipt from Tesco – long, expensive, and guaranteed to give you a headache.
The latest casualties in what's becoming a proper medical emergency are Frankie Maguire, Jordy Hiwula, and Jordan Richards, who all joined the walking wounded before Saturday's 1-1 draw with Wealdstone. That brings the total tally of crocked players to a perfectly ridiculous six, with Zak Mills, Ken Aboh, and Jordan Cropper already warming the treatment table.
At this rate, Hurst might as well set up a branch of the NHS at the Jakemans Community Stadium. Half a dozen players out with only two games remaining? That's not a squad rotation policy – that's a crisis.
The timing couldn't be more inconvenient, with Hiwula's absence forcing the gaffer to completely rethink his tactical approach against the Stones. When you're down to the bare bones and having to rejig your game plan on the fly, you know football's famous injury gods have well and truly stitched you up.
Credit where it's due though – Boston still managed to nick a point from their trip to Wealdstone, which suggests there's some fight left in this battered squad. A 1-1 draw might not set pulses racing, but when you're fielding what amounts to a MASH unit, you take what you can get.
The real question now is whether Hurst can cobble together eleven fit bodies for the final two fixtures. At this point, he might be eyeing up the youth team, the kit man, and possibly that bloke who sells programmes outside the ground.
It's the kind of injury crisis that makes managers go prematurely grey and reach for the tactical equivalent of sticking plasters. Boston United are discovering that Murphy's Law applies especially ruthlessly to football – if something can go wrong at the worst possible moment, it absolutely will.
With the season limping towards its conclusion much like several members of the first team squad, Boston United's walking wounded will be desperate to drag themselves over the finish line with some dignity intact. Whether they've got enough bodies left standing to manage it remains to be seen.