Besic a doubt for Asia Trophy

RM loves Barry. McCarthey is No 1 choice, Gibson(assuming he's fit) is to offered new contract, Cleverley just been signed so will expect games, with a new No 10 as a priority then Barkley could also be considered in midfield! This leaves a lot of players fighting for two spots!

I can only guess Besic will be regarded as one of many central midfield options, along with Barry, McCarthy, Gibson (for 10 games eh?) Barkley, Cleverley, sadly not one is really creative or that reliable in terms of goals.

Incidentally what is it with Everton FC and the dreaded hamstring injury?

It's on another website that he is also nursing a tight hamstring and initially that's what brought him off, I'm obviously not certain but that's what it said.

Notice also the link with Sergi Roberto has cropped up saying we are close to signing him (again whether the site is reliable who knows), a good player but apparently another defensive midfielder by trade, we are going to overrun with them!

So the defensive midfield is one down already and you cannot rely on Gibbo so that's two down with maybe three still left, Macca, Barry and Cleverly.

Hopefully Mo will recover quicker than most given that he is young.

If you are right about another defensive CM coming in, then, after what I saw at Swindon, McCarthy might be off.

It would make sense as a big asset that does not have much upside in terms of being able to do a Richardson, Bracewell and Reid and dominate the top 4 midfields... at east I can't see it.

Ive never known a team have so many hamstring injuries as Everton.

There has to be something fundamentally wrong with our fitness training when our players, especially a youngster like Besic, appear to be so prone to picking up injuries after only a short period of playing time. We saw this so many times last season, with players having to be withdrawn in the first half of games with niggling injuries.

As a qualified sports coach, I worry that our players are not being properly conditioned physically before being sent out on the field of play. Martinez this week spoke of the squad doing 'volume' training last week, which I translate to mean he had them running, jumping, and doing all manner of physical fitness workouts with very little actual 'ball time'.

By the time the team turned out at Swindon, legs that had been performing one form of physical exercise all week then had to switch to another form of pulling, turning, stretching etc and it was almost inevitable that those players whose game relies on speed and tenacity such as Besic would be favourites for picking up early injuries.

Our whole training regime must be closely examined as we certainly don't see or hear of these constant problems affecting other PL teams as often as they do ours. Something ain't right and needs fixing, or we'll end up like last season with a full treatment room every week.

We'll have to wait until the Barcelona elections (17-18 July) are over to see if they will lend him to us for a season. No way will they sell us another starlet.

I would take the opposite view point, and say that they might have done too much ball work, if that's at all possible.

The reason I take that view is McGeady pulled his hammy on the second or third day back. Although he might be one of the players who hasn't done much conditioning work lately, because he only had a month off.

Yes, Colin. I don't know where Sergi Roberto stands with Barca but I wouldn't say No to a season loan. Hope he's good mates with Deulofeu.

It is fairly well known that the fitness team did not approve of Martinez's methods which is the reason Donachie, who was very well respected in the game, left last season.

I don't know too much about training regimes in the modern game but the number of injuries, especially hamstrings, is very worrying.

However the number of 'days' we lost to injuries last season puts us well and truly in Champions League territory and certainly supports the suggestion that there is a problem with training regimes and the management of injuries:

Newcastle United 1871
Arsenal 1466
Everton 1423
Manchester United 1348
Queens Park Rangers 1283
Aston Villa 1148
Hull City 1145
Stoke City 1109
Liverpool 1095
West Ham United 924
Burnley 871
Sunderland 863
Crystal Palace 856
Southampton 782
Swansea City 671
West Bromwich Albion 640
Manchester City 630
Leicester City 540
Tottenham Hotspur 475
Chelsea 428