Nightmare for Moore as Shuker is out

Dec 31 2007 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

MANAGER Ronnie Moore described the loss of Chris Shuker for the remainder of Tranmere’s season as “an absolute nightmare.”

Four months after boasting Rovers had the best pair of wingers in League One, Moore has lost both of them to long-term cruciate ligament injuries.

Tranmere received confirmation on Saturday that Shuker suffered the same fate as Steve Davies, whose season was halted by cruciate ligament damage in September.

Teenager Davies is not expected to play again until next summer while Moore says Shuker may have to wait until next September before returning to action.

Shuker sustained his injury from a clattering challenge in the early minutes of Tranmere’s 2-0 win over Carlisle at Prenton Park on Boxing Day.

The results of the scans, which arrived shortly before the 1-0 home victory over Cheltenham on Saturday, confirmed Tranmere’s worst fears.

As in the case of Davies, Rovers are confident Shuker will make a full recovery in the fullness of time. Modern surgery techniques mean cruciate ligament injuries no longer threaten to wreck the careers of players in the way they did in the past.

But the period of recuperation and recovery from the operation cannot be hurried.

Moore said: “It is an absolute nightmare. Shukes has the same injury as Steve Davies and now we have lost our right winger as well as our left winger.

“We are looking at September before Shuker can come back. He can’t have the operation just yet because of the swelling and the bleeding in the knee. That may take another four to six weeks to go down.

“It is sad but the lad himself should not get too down about it. These injuries used to finish players’ careers. Now they make a full recovery. Shuker’s a gutsy lad and I am sure that both he and Steve Davies will come back and progress.”

Moore’s immediate problem is to find ways to reinforce his squad for the second half of the League One campaign.

The opening of the January transfer window this week provides an opportunity to bring in new recruits, most likely through the loan market. But Moore’s resources are limited and he has already suggested that players in the existing squad may have to go out for fresh faces to come in.

Moore said: “I have to try and do something about the situation and it might mean I have to move out players to bring people in. We are lightweight in the wide positions now and when you play 4-4-2 as we do, they are vital.”

Moore says he has identified targets but fears he may run into a familiar problem in coaxing young prospects away from the reserve teams of Premiership and Championship clubs.

He said: “We know who we want but it is all buts and maybes at the moment. We are waiting on the players and some of those youngsters don’t want to come out of the comfort zone.”

The two home wins last week moved Tranmere to within two points of the playoff zone and only four points short of an automatic promotion spot. They hope to make further upward progress in the New Year’s Day fixture at Crewe tomorrow (kick-off 3pm).

Moore admits the result was more important than the performance on Saturday, when strugglers Cheltenham were edged out by a single Calvin Zola goal on 60 minutes.

“It wasn’t a good game and I’m not kidding anyone that we played well,” Moore said. “You get scruffy wins and I’m glad we hung in there because a lot of the top sides came unstuck at the weekend.”