Watford suffer fresh injury concern to key player ahead of Leicester City visit
Watford manager Valerien Ismael could have an availability worry over goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann this weekend when Leicester City visit Vicarage Road. Bachmann left the field in the second half of the Hornets’ 3-0 FA Cup replay defeat at Southampton on Tuesday night after suffering concussion in the first period and having attempted initially to play on.
Watford goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann suffered concussion and was forced off in their FA Cup replay at Southampton – three days before Leicester City visit
The Saints scored all three of their goals in the second half thanks to a brace from Sekou Mara and a third from Leicester born Che Adams, to book their place in the fifth round of the competition and set up a tie with Premier League leaders Liverpool at Anfield at the end of this month.
After Southampton’s and Mara’s second of the night, Bachmann signalled for a change. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be available to Ismael when the Foxes arrive in Hertfordshire on Saturday, although experienced stopper and former Leicester keeper Ben Hamer has actually displaced him and has been number one since November. He was called on to replace Bachmann on Tuesday.
Ismael isn’t yet sure of how significant the concussion to Bachmann is, or whether he’ll be available if needed this weekend: “I don’t know exactly but it was to do with his head, and we made a concussion substitute. He had spoken about his head at half-time and said he was okay to continue, but it seems he wasn’t.”
Ismael is, though, hoping to have Emmanuel Dennis to call on this week; striker Dennis returned to Watford at the end of the transfer window on loan, a year after being sold to newly promoted Nottingham Forest for a fee in the region of £20m. He has, though, been without football on a regular basis for a little while.
“At the minute he’s not ready to start so that’s why he will be staying here to train, and we will use the week to prepare him more,” Ismael continued. “He needs training sessions, because we saw in the last game that he is starting to get in the direction we want to see. The spark is starting to be back.
“You need training sessions. Only training can give him what he needs. We’ve got another three games next week and we will need Dennis a lot, so that’s why we used the week to let him work with our staff.”
