Brian Stock has said that keeping his squad fit will play an important part in the remainder of the Terras season.
Speaking to uptheterras.co.uk after Saturday’s defeat at Sutton United, the Weymouth boss said that the recent hectic schedule meant a lot of his focus has been on how to keep his players fresh from game to game.
With Andy Dallas and Josh McQuoid only recently returning from injury, Weymouth now face fresh injury concerns with Ben Morgan looking to be out for the rest of the season and Ben Thomson nursing a groin injury.
Although, Stock did admit that the injury to Morgan does present an opportunity to Josh Leslie-Smith and Brennan Camp to impress at centre-back.
“Unfortunately, due to the demand of this league and playing three games in six days, Ben Morgan has torn his hamstring,” said Stock. “There’s no point rushing him back between now and the end of the season; so we’ll make sure he’s fit to go.
“It gives an opportunity for somebody else to come into the team, I thought Brennan Camp came in and did very well (at Sutton). Josh Leslie-Smith has an opportunity from now until the end of the season.”
“We have to try and make sure we look after the players and when we played those three games in six days, most of the preparation was how could I keep a fit squad.
“When I look at the bench and the players we have available it’s important we keep everyone as fresh as we can. We made a substitution with Pierre (Fonkeu) and Thomson coming on, unfortunately, Thommo has got injured and hurt his groin again, so that is disappointing.
“It’s important that with the likes of Josh McQuoid and Andy Dallas, who haven’t played much football recently, that we have to keep them fresh from now until the end of the season.”
After an extended break, the fixture list presented trips to Maidenhead and Woking as well as the visit of Barnet all within a week.
There is no chance to rest this week either as Weymouth face a trip to Solihull Moors tomorrow evening.
“We will make sure that we assess the squad, do our homework on Solihull and put together a formation and team to go there and try and win the game,” continued Stock.
“The most important thing is that we have fresh legs, which is hard with the demand of this league. We need to learn from those lessons going into next season, it’s a great learning curve for us.
“Solihull Moors is a very tough place to go, especially on a Tuesday night. The lads might have to take a day off work to keep that freshness. We’ll look at the squad, one or two players who are a little bit tired after Sutton will have to be assessed.”
