|
|
Post by realstokebloke on Mar 25, 2008 15:53:21 GMT
David Nugent believes he could have enjoyed a successful season with Portsmouth had it not been for injury problems since his £6million move.
The 22-year-old says he has been injured for seven months after his transfer from Preston and believes he was mistaken for thinking he could play through the pain before he finally had an operation to repair a hernia last month.
He is now back in the Portsmouth squad and, despite still being without a Premier League goal, Nugent is ready to fight for a place in the first team as Pompey look to reach the FA Cup final with a semi-final against West Brom at the start of next month.
Nugent has started only seven first-team games - and only four in the Premier League - and was back on the substitutes' bench for Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Tottenham.
Nugent explained: "I've been playing since the start of the season with an injury. I've got it sorted out now and hopefully can start making an impression.
"It's just been wear and tear of the groin but it has stopped me doing myself justice for Portsmouth. I even had pain at the end of last season's England Under-21 European Championship run but I thought I could play through it."
He added in the Portsmouth News: "I just took painkillers and hoped for the best but that proved a bad decision. In the end I had to have the operation.
"It's taken a long time to recover but now I can say it feels fine - and I've got the buzz again.
"I just need a few games now and hopefully I can get involved in some for the first team before the season ends."
It is still tough competition up front for Nugent, though, with Jermain Defoe set to return at home to Wigan on Saturday after being banned by a technicality from facing his old team Tottenham.
Harry Redknapp is set to revive the Defoe-Milan Baros partnership, saving veteran Kanu for Wembley when Defoe will be ineligible again.
Sol Campbell should also be back against Wigan after missing two games with a knee injury but doubts persist over £5million midfielder Lassana Diarra who injured a hamstring in training, missed the Spurs game and has been pulled out of the France squad for tomorrow's clash with England in Paris.
Mmm.
Not even a mention of "dropping down" a division and (as emboldened) it does seem like he was keeping his semi final FA Cup options open by not going anywhere.
Kind of miss the 40 Nugent thread a day frenzy though? ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by Block 26 on Mar 25, 2008 15:55:31 GMT
Nugents too happy getting paid to sit on his arse in the prem, we all know this
|
|
