Out of all the players in the squad, there is probably one player who fans would agree that they don’t want to get injured – and that’s Martin Dubravka.
Well regrettably for supporters, that’s exactly what’s happened, and the 31-year-old will be out until at least April with a knee injury, according to reports from the BBC.
While playing against Southampton on the weekend, he picked up the injury in the 60th minute but managed to see out the game for his side as they defeated them 1-0 at St Mary’s.
The keeper has not missed a Premier League game for the club since February 2018, which could cause a few problems for the club considering his importance to the side.
Thankfully, the club is just about in a position to not be looking over their shoulders, so it’s not as if Karl Darlow – the player most likely to replace him – should have too much pressure upon him.
Who should Bruce call on to cover for Dubravka?
Darlow
Elliot
So far this season, he has featured 29 times all season, and even though he has conceded 41 goals from those games, he has kept an impressive nine clean sheets, with only Nick Pope, Alisson, Dean Henderson and Kasper Schmeichel keeping more in the league.
Furthermore, he has made more shots saved from in the box than any other keeper with 80 – the next closest is Mat Ryan with 71 – and he has also made more saves than any other keeper, according to SofaScore.
While these stats are obviously somewhat down to Bruce’s rather attritional tactics, it is still a good statistic to prove just the sheer amount of saves he is making per game.
WhoScored’s algorithm also thinks he is one of the league’s best, with him having a match rating of 6.84 – only Bernd Leno has a higher match rating out of the ‘keepers (with 12 games played or more).
Given his importance to his team, it is hard to think of a player who they need more.