The News – even though they were wrong in saying he ‘limped away from the game with Preston in January’ – is reporting that Dave Nugent had been carrying his groin problem all season, so when he had to come off at half time against ‘Plymouth’ in the FA cup in January it was not a new injury at all, he said: ‘I’d been playing since the start of the season with an injury.
‘It was wear and tear of the groin, something I’ve had for a while. I even had it at the end of last season at the European Championships for the under-21s.
‘I thought I could play through the pain but gradually it got worse and worse and couldn’t really walk by the end.
‘I wasn’t doing myself justice for Portsmouth and couldn’t get a full sprint out, but I didn’t want to tell everyone and go on about how I had an injury.
‘As far as I was concerned, at the start of the year it was my chance to play in the team while the Africans were away at the African Cup of Nations.
‘I was playing injured but I didn’t want to say anything because I wanted to play so much.
‘I took painkillers to try to cope with it but they weren’t working so in the end there was only one option and that was to have an operation.
‘Looking back, it was a bad decision because I had to have the operation.
‘But that’s the way it is. I just want to play football and you have got to play through the pain barrier some games. You’ve got to do it, but this pain was a bit too much in the end.’
Well, there you go fellas?
Although it does not explain the ‘off the field’ activities – but when all is said and done he is still a young man who is entitled to have ‘some’ fun, but maybe not as much as it is ‘reported’ that he has though – it does make sense, as despite his hard work and effort he was not looking the player that we had hoped he would be.
But I cannot help but ask, why was nothing said before? Who knew the score, and who did not? Surely the club must have known as he would not have been able to keep it secret from everyone?
Nugent was a surprise inclusion on the bench against Spurs last weekend after only 1 reserve outing, but is now hoping to get some games between now and the summer and show exactly what he can do: ‘the groin’s feeling good after the operation. I just need a few more games and I’ll be okay.
‘Last week was my first game back for the reserves and obviously I was a bit tired towards the end, especially the last 10 to 15 minutes, – but I’ve got the buzz again.
‘Hopefully I can be involved in a few more first-team games before the season ends’.
It is another bizarre one for Pompey, I would really like to see if the operation will make the difference, which on the face of it it appear it could. If this is the case then he could still become the top class footballer I have always maintained I believe he will be – and what’s more possibly still here after all when it appeared he was destined to leave in the summer?
Does this explain why his season has been such a strange one, what do you reckon fellas?
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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