Early End For Bardsley

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Defender undergoes surgery after safety assured as trio miss run-in

2021-05-13T16:07:46.961Z

Early End For Bardsley

Defender undergoes surgery after safety assured as trio miss run-in

2021-05-13T16:07:46.961Z

Defender undergoes surgery after safety assured as trio miss run-in

The Clarets will complete the season without at least three senior players as Phil Bardsley joins Kevin Long and Robbie Brady on the sidelines.

Brady and Long haven’t figured in recent weeks due to Achilles and calf injuries, respectively, and manager Sean Dyche confirmed that the Irish international duo won’t make it back before the end of the campaign.

Bardsley was on the bench at Fulham on Monday night as a 2-0 win guaranteed Burnley’s Premier League survival.

But the right-back will now undergo surgery to repair a hernia problem and won’t figure against Leeds United, Liverpool or Sheffield United.

“We’ve got a couple of situations where players will miss games because of injury. They’ve been hanging on,” said Dyche.

“Phil Bardsley has a hernia situation, which will hopefully be straight-forward.

“He’s been keeping himself right and training very hard to make sure that we saw the job through.

“That will need doing now and there are couple of others who just need things looking at to make sure, so we’ll have to get on top of them.

“We hope not to go into the next pre-season with all these injuries, so the things players have been carrying we have to try and get on top of.”

Midfielder Dale Stephens has also been troubled by an ankle knock which may now require intervention and rule him out of the run-in.

And the Clarets will also check on goalkeeper Nick Pope ahead of Saturday’s visit of Leeds as the medical department manages shoulder and knee issues the England international has been dealing with in recent weeks.

Dyche’s men have secured their top-flight status for a sixth successive season after recovering from a disastrous start undermined by injury problems and no wins in their first seven games.

Two emphatic victories in their last three fixtures have got them over the line with a 12-point gap above the bottom three.

A first home win in nine attempts against Leeds at Turf Moor on Saturday lunchtime could lift the Clarets up to 13th in the table.

And despite the toll taken on his squad, Dyche is still looking for a big finish to another outstanding campaign.

“We want to finish the season right,” added the Burnley boss.

“I have said recently – although we didn’t get all the points I felt we deserved – that our performance levels have been good.

“We want to maintain that and we still want to perform over these next three games.”