Godfrey facing 'months' out with fractured tibia

06/08/2022 30comments  |  Jump to last

The early indications are that Ben Godfrey has fractured his tibia and that the defender faces more than mere weeks on the sidelines.

The defender had to be stretchered off the field early in the first half of this afternoon's season opener against Chelsea after he went in with a robust challenge on Kai Havertz and was taken to hospital to have x-rays of the injury.

Speaking after the 1-0 defeat, Lampard said that the early prognosis was that Godfrey had suffered a "small fracture" and while further tests will determine the full severity of the issue, it looks as though he will be out of action for months.

The Blues suffered a double blow in the game, with Godfrey's central-defensive partner Yerry Mina sustaining yet another injury, this time to his ankle, that will sideline him for a period of weeks. The Colombian pulled up after planting his foot awkwardly in another of those innocuous-looking incidents that have forced him to retire from matches early on too many occasions during his Everton career.

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"It feels like it is a small fracture of his leg," the manager said afterwards. "We are assessing that. He will be out for a while, Mina is an ankle injury we don’t know too much about and could be out for a while. When it rains, it pours.

“It makes it hard. They’re not muscle injuries, they’re freak injuries.”

With Jarrard Branthwaite out on loan, it leaves Lampard with three fit senior centre-halves and will likely intensify speculation around the club's reported pursuit of Conor Coady of Wolverhampton Wanderers.


 

Reader Comments (30)

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Paul Hewitt
1 Posted 06/08/2022 at 22:40:23
We simply are cursed.
Phillip Mark
2 Posted 06/08/2022 at 23:11:46
Coady will clearly come in. Hope Mina isn’t out for long but history doesn’t look good.

Please please please sign a couple of forward players though. It’s criminally poor management of the club to say that we’re at this stage of the season with no decent forwards. Captain Obvious, I know.

Tony Abrahams
3 Posted 06/08/2022 at 23:31:50
I think it would be best if Mina left the club because the lad just can’t stay fit and put a run of games together, which is unfortunate really because we looked so much better defensively today.

Someone said a very sensible thing on ToffeeWeb today about defenders needing to play together, to build up a better understanding, so to lose two today is very frustrating, especially Godfrey, because the ball had already gone out for a corner and, if Chelsea would have scored, VAR would have had to overrule it.

The positive was Tarowoski, and to think Everton paid £25 million for Michael Keane, not long after Burnley had bought this fella for around £6 million, shows how bad our recruitment has been for years.

Justin Doone
4 Posted 06/08/2022 at 23:43:19
I'm sorry to say but, in this instance, it was Godfrey's own stupid decision-making.

He needlessly tried a back pass that was poor and put Pickford in trouble. He galloped back and somehow avoided taking Havertz out and instead injured himself.

I had high hopes for the lad but he plays like a 14-year-old and simply isn't showing any signs of progress.

We have too many 'stupid' players – especially defenders – who make far too many wrong and rash decisions

Pickford's the same. People say he's improved. I don't see it. His much-lauded distribution is average and he makes constant poor decisions.

I certainly don't want to spend any pennies we have left on a keeper of defenders as we need goals from the forwards and midfield. Hopefully a top quality player on loan or a free.


Brent Stephens
5 Posted 06/08/2022 at 23:50:26
"I'm sorry to say but, in this instance, it was Godfrey's own stupid decision-making. He needlessly tried a back pass that was poor and put Pickford in trouble. He galloped back and somehow avoided taking Havertz out and instead injured himself."

The decision to make a back pass wasn't stupid - in your own words, it was a poor back pass. The execution, not the decision, was poor.

Or are you saying that trying to win the ball was stupid? At that moment, it was the right decision. He's a defender; that's his job.

Peter Mills
6 Posted 06/08/2022 at 23:50:29
I’ve only just seen the incident again on MotD. The ball was clearly over the goal line, the Referee’s Assistant should have flagged, had he done so Godfrey would not have had to make the tackle.

Many have warned that the now accepted practice of the flag being kept down would lead to injury. Today it did.


Will Mabon
7 Posted 07/08/2022 at 00:33:03
Peter, I haven't watched any follow-up since watching live – I was under the impression that the linesman missed the ball crossing the line. I think this is supposed to be flagged without delay, only in-play events suffering the hold-off.

This area of the rules is undergoing change, I believe – or there's been discussion at least.

However, the outcome is about as expected when our luck is involved. Awful for Godfrey, and the team. It was a similar kind of action that led to that horrific David Busst injury years back: if those studs catch...

Andrew Keatley
8 Posted 07/08/2022 at 00:41:37
Peter (6) - Congratulations on a classic ToffeeWeb comment; rather than just accept a freak sequence of events as unfortunate, apportion blame to the blameless. Hats off.

If the referee’s assistant had flagged for the ball going out of play then he would have either had to have bionic eyesight, or someone in his ear telling him to do so having seen the video footage (which is not within the rules), or guessed (which would be poor officiating).

The assistant running the line in the Everton half is on the other touchline (ie the Everton left), and their job is to stay in line with the deepest Everton outfield player - so they would have been 30-odd yards away. The other assistant referee was in the other half of the field. None of the referee team were in a position to judge whether the ball was out or not, and nobody should have expected them to either.

Anyway, tough one for Godfrey, and hopefully his recovery is quick.

Ben King
9 Posted 07/08/2022 at 00:55:50
It does feel like we’re cursed doesn’t it?
Pekka Harvilahti
10 Posted 07/08/2022 at 01:08:24
Godfrey's pace and strength are Premier League standard, his positioning and passing are not. For the good of Everton FC, he should be sold.

No offense, he seems like a good guy, but that's the way it is.


Jamie Crowley
11 Posted 07/08/2022 at 03:43:08
I do have to say this needs to be filed under "freak and unfortunate".

As Brent rightly points out, it was bad execution. As Andrew rightly points out, the assistant referee's job is to be in line with the second-to-last defender including the keeper (99% of the time, the "last defender") and there's no way any assistant referee could sprint that fast to be in position to judge whether or not the ball crossed the goal line.

Godfrey busts a gut – as he always does – to sprint back and cover for his error and boom - planted foot due to over-aggression to make up for his error, results in a freak break. It's all just awful luck. Happens, that's life.

I sincerely hope Godfrey has a quick recovery and is back in the side after the World Cup / come Christmas. I said on the Live Forum, it's like having aces cracked by two-seven off suit in poker. Terrible odds but it can happen.

Get well quick, Ben!

Danny O’Neill
12 Posted 07/08/2022 at 06:00:45
That's fair, Andrew. The players were still assuming the ball was in play. You could argue that Pickford should have smashed it, but he was the closest to it and I would imagine he just assumed to goal kick was going to be awarded.

I don't think anyone could have done anything about that situation yesterday. Kind of related, but I'm not a fan of the late raising of the flag for an offside. Okay, try and let the game flow, but they are almost allowing the game to run for almost a minute before then raising their flag.

Andy Meighan
13 Posted 07/08/2022 at 07:48:01
Not even 10 minutes into the season and we've lost a player for what looks like the rest of the campaign.

Oh and why wasn't I shocked when soft lad Mina pulled up? The number of times I've argued his case in The Harlech after a game when the lads say he's a liability.

Well, guess what – he's a liability! Get rid and quick.


Justin Doone
14 Posted 07/08/2022 at 10:54:04
I'm simply saying Godfrey injured himself, from his own mistakes and poor decision-making. I wish him a quick recovery. Yes, it was unfortunate but it's all his own doing.

I wish Pickford or the officials would have made a quick decision about it being out and made it more obvious but that didn't happen and ultimately players have to take responsibility for their own mistakes.

Presuming Godfrey and Dom miss a large chunk of this season and they're both now 24 / 25, I don't feel they will improve this season or next. So for me they, along with Pickford and Keane, should be sold.

Coady isn't the long-term answer, he's a little slow and weak. But he's a lot more consistent which is what we need our defense to be. Therefore, he's an upgrade on the jokers at the back.

Peter Mills
15 Posted 07/08/2022 at 10:54:04
Andrew #8, on reflection, and having watched MotD again this morning, I think you are correct.

I suspect my judgment was swayed by the severity of the injury, and by the fact that through my (very non-bionic) eyes at the match, 100 m away from the incident, my thought was that the ball was out. However, as you say, the assistant referee was not in a clear position to see, and the referee was some way back.

Danny O’Neill
16 Posted 07/08/2022 at 11:33:29
Ben Godfrey made a mistake as many young footballers do. He tried to recover the situation as you would expect any footballer to do. Had he stood and watched, he'd have been slated.

He didn't injure himself and it wasn't his own doing. It's football. Mistakes happen but he showed more than 100% commitment in trying to protect our goal once he knew he made the mistake. And he did at cost to his own body.

I'm not going to criticise a player for that.

Sorry, I can't accept that view.

John Pickles
17 Posted 07/08/2022 at 11:42:46
As this is Everton, the only real surprise, is that it wasn't Tarkowski.
Robert Tressell
18 Posted 07/08/2022 at 11:52:26
Very sad for Godfrey, who needed a season of stability to mature as a player. However, being optimistic, it might force us to play a back 4 which is probably a blessing.

Tarkowski + Holgate (or Keane or Mina when fit) could become quite a good pairing with Onana and Gueye in front of them.

Branthwaite can then return next summer to take over from Mina (departing then on a free).

Dropping a centre-back would also make room for Alli (an additional goal threat) with Gordon and McNeil wide of Calvert-Lewin (or maybe Kalimuendo, Kalajdzic or Broja if rumours are to be believed).

Matthew Williams
19 Posted 07/08/2022 at 12:49:05
Terrible news for the lad Godfrey. Our pursuit of Coady needs to intensify now.

As for Mina... I couldn't give a flying fuck about him. I am sick of the "man of glass", I just want rid of... he's simply yet another foreign fraud.

Our need for a couple of strikers is now of paramount importance after yesterday's display!

Neil Copeland
20 Posted 07/08/2022 at 13:33:09
Get fit again soon Ben
Brian Cleveland
21 Posted 07/08/2022 at 13:40:36
Matthew, "another foreign fraud"? Sorry, mate, but that sounds pretty xenophobic.

Time for Brexit, let's take our borders back?

I do agree that Mina, as an individual, cannot be relied on because of his injury record with us, but "another foreign fraud" is perhaps a little offensive.


Dean Williams
22 Posted 07/08/2022 at 13:57:29
All down to Pickford again.
James O'Connell
23 Posted 07/08/2022 at 14:03:09
Injury prone DCL should be moved on while we can still get a reasonable fee for him, Mina also.
Why we seem to have a blind spot with recruiting strikers is just beyond me. Maybe 5 - 5 - 0 or a flat back 10 is the future.
Matthew Williams
24 Posted 07/08/2022 at 14:06:39
I also want that local fraud gone for good, Brian... namely our so-called Chairman.

Why in God's name is he still hanging around like a bad smell?

Dean Williams
25 Posted 07/08/2022 at 14:35:35
Got to be the worst-run club in the Premier League by far.

Not a striker in sight, this club depresses the life out of me.

Steavey Buckley
26 Posted 07/08/2022 at 20:32:49
The small fracture could not have happened at the worst time to one of Everton's nicest persons.

Get well soon, Ben Godfrey.

Tony Everan
27 Posted 07/08/2022 at 20:55:03
All players make mistakes every week. He was at full tilt to rectify that and was very unlucky to get the bad injury. 99 times out of a hundred, the error would now be forgotten about if no goal was conceded. The injury has made it topical.

Wishing Ben a speedy recovery, any chance of him returning when the league restarts on Boxing Day?

Jerome Shields
28 Posted 07/08/2022 at 21:08:36
Bad luck. That ball was definitely out.

Wishing Godfrey a good recovery.

Peter Mills
29 Posted 07/08/2022 at 21:57:04
One thing missing from our analysis on here - it was a fantastic tackle by Ben.

I like the lad, and think he could become an excellent defender.

Alex Parr
30 Posted 07/08/2022 at 22:02:40
I was raging at the linesman to begin with but on reflection it's totally our fuck up.rn1. Awful back pass from Ben.rn2. Awful decision making from JP, equally as key to the original mistake by Ben.rn3. Overexuberance by Ben to make up for both errors.rnYeah the ball was out but the nearest person to it was JP and he just panicked. I thought after The Maiming of St Virgil, he has done well and appeared to make strides in his concentration. I swear he has ADHD. I don't know if he's come off his meds or changed something significantly in his lifestyle but he all of a sudden seems very prone to erratic decisions, ive watched all pre-season and Chelsea and it seems to be rushing back into his game.rnI think the gamble of making him captain is backfiring badly, he needs to concentrate on his own game first and foremost. rnrnSwift recovery Ben, best of luck.

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