Injuries Aplenty – Ruiz Out, Grygera Done

Bryan Ruiz has been ruled out until 2013 with an aggravation of his hamstring injury.The injury news continues to flood through the Fulham news outlets, leaving Fulham fans scratching their heads and wondering what options Martin Jol has left to give the Whites a chance to win not just this weekend against Newcastle, but going forward through December until reinforcements are sure to arrive in January.

Two major pieces of news are now flowing through. First, Bryan Ruiz has suffered a setback in the final stages of his hamstring recovery and will be out until the next transfer window. This is a massive blow to the attacking ranks, which has seemed lackluster and uninspiring the last few weeks without the Costa Rican.

The club really doesn’t have another option who can play a creative role behind the striker, much like Moussa Dembele did until being sold to Spurs.

The other sad bit of news from Motspur Park is Zdenek Grygera’s long road to recovery has hit a severe roadblock and is causing the Czech to hang up his boots, for now at least. His time with Fulham is officially over, as he will retire. Martin Jol quoted Grygera saying the defender told him he “didn’t want to end up in a wheelchair” later in life, which makes sense. He had been recovering from an ACL tear, and suffered some hip and quad injuries as well during his knee rehab, which was too much for the 32 year old.

Grygera’s statement via the official club website:

“I have to say thank you very much to Fulham. Thank you to the medical staff and to everyone. I felt that there was a family atmosphere here and everyone was very friendly towards me and that made things a lot easier for me because I have been injured for more than one year and sometimes that can be hard. So for this I would like to thank everyone; the Manager, the Club, the Directors. I hope to come back to visit Fulham in the springtime and many times after that to see everyone. I will go on being a supporter of Fulham. Also, I want to say thank you to the fans. Every match when I come to Craven Cottage, the people stop me on the street and ask me how my recovery is going and how my injury is and whether I am close to signing a new contract. I told them that I was doing well but I needed time. So I am disappointed and my supporters will be disappointed but, for me, the important thing now is to be fit. I’m still young; 32, almost 33, so my fitness is important for the rest of my life. I don’t want to take the risk of playing one or two games when my legs are not ready, which is the case at the moment. I think the best match for me in a Fulham shirt was the League Cup against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, although the 6-0 against Queens Park Rangers was obviously a better result. From every match I played for Fulham, though, I had a good feeling and that’s why I was happy here.”

Grygera impressed in his short time on the pitch at Craven Cottage, and many were hoping he would be able to return and help out the back line.