Coventry City exclusive: Mark Robins provide sad update on city duo
The Sky Blues boss had some sobering news regarding Ben Sheaf and Milan van Ewijk following their clash with Cardiff City.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Mark Robins has confirmed that Coventry City’s Ben Sheaf will be out for at least six weeks due to a groin injury.
- With the absence of Sheaf and Gus Hamer having departed, Robins admits that Coventry may need to find a different approach to breaking down opposing teams.
- Milan van Ewijk also suffered an injury during the Cardiff City match, but it is unclear how serious it is or how long he will be out for
After Coventry City’s 3-2 loss to Cardiff City last night, we have some more bad news for the club.
Indeed, when speaking to the media, Sky Blues boss Mark Robins offered a rather bleak injury update on duo Ben Sheaf and Milan van Ewijk.
Sheaf missed out on Coventry’s clash with Hull City at the weekend, at the time of which the extent of his injury was unknown.
Meanwhile, van Ewijk was forced off the pitch early last night with a thigh injury of some sort.
What has Mark Robins said about Ben Sheaf’s injury?
Speaking after the Hull City clash at the weekend, Robins confirmed that Sheaf was suffering with a groin issue.
“He’s strained his groin,” Robins told the media at the weekend, via CoventryLive.
“Well, it’s actually an adductor and he’ll be out for an unspecified period of time.
“It’s going to be at least a couple of weeks, I would have thought.”
It turns out, though, that the ‘couple of weeks’ timeline above was a rather optimistic one, with Robins confirming that Sheaf was now set to be out for at least six weeks.
“Ben is going to be out for a minimum of six weeks, which is a huge blow because that was the one area where we didn’t really strengthen in the summer,” Robins explained to the media after the Cardiff clash on Tuesday, via CoventryLive.
With Gus Hamer having gone in the summer, and Sheaf now sidelined, Robins admitted he may have to ‘do things in a different way’ for the time being.
“Losing Gus [Hamer] we have lost 70 percent of our success rate in terms of his passing, but his passing was always penetrative and always got through teams, and that was what we were missing in large spells of the game. And that’s the challenge for us, moving forward, as to how we can break teams down.” Robins added.
“I have just got to make sure we have got enough in there or we might have to do things in a different way for the time being, but really we have to be braver than that because we have got good players in there that generally do the job.
“But, for whatever reason, for the two thirds of the first half we didn’t cause Cardiff any issues what-so-ever.”
What has Mark Robins said about Milan van Ewijk’s injury?
As touched upon above, Milan van Ewijk was taken off early during the Cardiff City clash on Tuesday night, and after the match, Robins explained why that was, but is unclear on just how long he could be out for, or how serious it is.
“He [van Ewijk] felt his thigh but whether it’s a strain or a tear or not, I don’t know yet,” Robins explained to the media, via CoventryLive.
“He felt it at the end of the first half but he wanted to carry on.
“There wasn’t a loss of power, which suggests it’s not something that’s huge, but if you feel something like that, but that’s another thing, players have got to understand their bodies because it can become a compounded problem if they carry on.
“I can understand if they want to stay on the pitch but they have got to be sensible too because we can’t afford to get too many injuries.”
