Vitalii Mykolenko leaves Ukraine team camp after injury setback

Paul Hewitt

1 Posted
03/09/2025 at
16:38:01

He should never have gone. Only been back a few games.

Jack Convery

2 Posted
03/09/2025 at
17:04:56

We need a left-back pronto.

Not to mention that other problem position — right-back!!!!!

Paul Kossoff

3 Posted
03/09/2025 at
17:18:58

Jonathan Oppenheimer

4 Posted
03/09/2025 at
17:19:38

He was clearly not right in the Wolves match. Hopefully it didn’t get too much worse while with the national team and he can recover in the next month or so, but if it’s significantly worse, we’re in trouble.

But unless Aznou is that raw and not good enough, if he’s healthy, I’d like to see him given a run to see what he’s capable of.

Ian Bennett

5 Posted
03/09/2025 at
17:29:09

We had a loan bid turned down for Chilwell apparently before he went France.

Phil (Kelsall) Roberts

6 Posted
03/09/2025 at
17:33:24

Jack – Transfer and Loan window has closed until 1.1.2026 so it is Free Agents or Nobody.

Robert Birks

7 Posted
03/09/2025 at
19:01:33

He is beginning to like the treatment room.

January, 2 full-backs please.

Rob Hooton

8 Posted
03/09/2025 at
19:11:02

Bit of a blow, I quite like Mykolenko who has been defensively solid. I thought he was improving at getting forward last season when Moyes came back and was hoping he might kick on a bit this season (we know Moyes likes his fullbacks to get forward last).

Hope it isn’t serious; I also hope Aznou is ready to take his chance and stake his place in the team – he probably wasn’t expecting it so soon.

Rob Dolby

9 Posted
03/09/2025 at
19:20:02

He didn’t look fit against Wolves and was probably rushed back.

I wouldn’t bet against him starting against Villa.

Oliver Molloy

10 Posted
03/09/2025 at
19:41:30

The club getting a bit of stick regards this – if true, the fitness guys at Everton have questions to answer.

“Mykolenko left the national team due to a diagnosed muscle problem,” he said.

“A big thank you to Everton who managed to get the player back on the pitch on the 18th day after his muscle injury and immediately gave him two 90-minute games in three days.

“This is blatant unprofessionalism and amateurism. There are a lot of emotions, let them look for the guilty, but this is the structure of the barbell – from the coaching to the medical staff of Everton.

“It’s incredible that this is happening at a club of the English Premier League level in 2025.

“It is difficult for me to imagine how a coach with the appropriate coaching education and understanding of football can make such decisions and deliberately expose a player to the risk of injury, which does not benefit the club, the national team, the player himself, or even the coach himself, who loses a key fighting unit.”

Julian Wait

12 Posted
03/09/2025 at
19:54:13

Christy Ring

13 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:01:00

The Ukraine medical staff called us unprofessional and amateurish, saying coming back from a hamstring injury after 18 days and playing 90 minutes Wednesday and Saturday doesn’t make sense, and that it’s going to take longer now to recover?

So are we back playing Garner again out of position, after his fine performance in midfield against Wolves? If it’s true, it definitely asks questions about our medical team.

I don’t understand why he played the full game against Mansfield in his first game back anyway?

Rumours we tried to bring in Chilwell a couple of hours before the deadline, but he had signed for Strasbourg… Could we not have tried to bring him in weeks earlier, a very good left-back?

Pete Neilson

14 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:03:13

Read today that our first team doctor, William Fotherby, is joining Man Utd so I imagine it’ll be somebody else dealing with his treatment.

Gavin Johnson

15 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:08:32

Could have been worse. They could have played him and he had broken down and he’d be out for even longer.

Their physio is right that you shouldn’t expect to see this happening in this day and age. Years ago, I remember Kevin Ratcliffe saying that he played a lot of games for Everton when he wasn’t fully fit and was doing it on injections. It didn’t serve him, because he went from being possibly the best centre-back in the league to being washed up not long after reaching 30.

Sam Hoare

16 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:13:05

Not ideal. Could mean an early debut for Adam Aznou.

Or for Merlin Röhl if Garner is moved back to left-back.

Colin Glassar

17 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:15:19

Moyes has history doing this.

Remember when he rushed back Jack Rodwell and played him on the wing? He was never the same after that.

Brendan McLaughlin

18 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:16:32

Thought Finch Farm had a “rest & recovery” approach…

Christy Ring

19 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:17:28

Gavin #15,

Martinez did the same with McCarthy, never gave him enough time to recover fully from his hamstring injury, played him too soon.

Gavin Johnson

20 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:23:57

Christy. Yep, I forgot all about McCarthy.

I seem to remember Martinez going against our own physio team on that one, cos he held some kind of physio qualification himself so thought he knew better.

Brendan McLaughlin

21 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:29:46

Colin #17,

A history of doing this? Backed up with one example from ancient history.

Dave Abrahams

22 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:32:23

Paul (1),

I think when a player is selected to play for their country, then they have to travel so the coaches of that country can make the decision to see if they are fit or not.

Tony Abrahams

23 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:34:35

I think that these things can sometimes go out of the window, when there’s nobody else to play there, Brendan?

I think we have signed some good players and had a fairly good window, but I hope not bringing in a couple of versatile defenders doesn’t come back and bite us in the arse.

Unprofessional and amateurish is hopefully being left behind but, when you are short on numbers and not totally prepared for a new season, then sometimes you end up rushing players back a little bit too quickly.

I’m not Mykolenko’s biggest fan but he his definitely needed right now.

Maybe Merlin Röhl could play left-back, Sam?

Ernie Baywood

24 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:48:57

It sounds like we tried to withdraw him due to injury and Ukraine insisted he travel and be assessed.

They’re frustrated that he’s not available.

Players get released from international duty due to injury all the time. And they play for their club side. I don’t think this is as big a story as it’s being made out.

Brendan McLaughlin

25 Posted
03/09/2025 at
20:50:40

Course they can, Tony #23.

But when I read about the “rest and recovery” regime at Finch Farm on here… I got the impression they called the shots.

Tony Abrahams

26 Posted
03/09/2025 at
21:03:59

I hope Ernie is calling this correctly.

And with regards the rest and recovery regime, Brendan, then hopefully it’s going to become a thing of the past!

Christy Ring

27 Posted
03/09/2025 at
21:09:30

Dave #22

Completely correct: if a club withdraws a player from international duty because of injury, the country can insist on him travelling and their medical staff can assess the player for injury. Fergie did it loads of times for International friendlies.

John Raftery

28 Posted
03/09/2025 at
21:43:58

Mykolenko’s contract expires next June. It’s always awkward for a player suffering recurring injury issues in the final year of his contract. The Ukrainian has an history of injuries. After first arriving at the club in 2022 he played for 18 months with a hip problem until it was remedied with some specialist treatment.

Mykolenko never strikes me as a shirker, exactly the opposite in fact, but at this point in his career he obviously needs to get himself fully fit just as the club needs him to be fully fit. If that means he drops out for a few matches, so be it.

Mike Morgan

29 Posted
03/09/2025 at
21:48:03

Earlier comment spot on. Why did he play the full game against Mansfield !!!

Si Cooper

30 Posted
03/09/2025 at
22:01:08

During the transfer window there were posts that suggested that Roma had a surfeit of full backs and we might benefit from some intra-stable trading.

That went quiet, presumably because we weren’t that interested in them or vice versa. Should that attitude change after the transfer window has shut is there a way of exploiting it?

I read that Sevilla terminated Kelechi Iheanacho’s contract by mutual consent to make it easier for him to find another club and then he signed for Celtic. Could Roma do that for one of their players if he assesses his current competition and decides he’s got a better chance of being a starter for us than at Roma? Or are their rules in place that prevent such a thing from happening?

Jonathan Oppenheimer

31 Posted
03/09/2025 at
23:46:05

I went back to explore the question of why he played the entire match against Mansfield. He actually came off in the 87th minute for Jake O’Brien, when we were still up only 1-0. Assuming he was feeling fine and we didn’t want to risk giving up a goal at the end, it might make sense we kept him on, as Seamus was playing and Aznou and Patterson weren’t healthy. The best option then would’ve been to take him off after 60 minutes and move Dwight back there and Tim to midfield, or something like that. Certainly feels like too much football in 3 days for someone coming off an injury.

Mark Taylor

32 Posted
04/09/2025 at
00:47:56

If you don’t sign full backs, expect problems.

God knows how we would cope if O’Brien got injured.