Chesterfield continue to investigate reasons behind injury crisis

The Spireites mainly had a clean bill of health last season as they ran away with the National League title. It was only towards the final weeks of the season that they suffered any problems.

But, despite not doing much different this term, they have been rocked by injuries starting in pre-season and which will run into the new year. Depending on the injuries picked up by Lewis Gordon and Tyrone Williams in the win against Carlisle United on Saturday, Town could have as many as 11 players missing for this weekend’s home clash against fellow promotion hopeful AFC Wimbledon, with Vontae Daley-Campbell, Devan Tanton, Chey Dunkley, Ash Palmer, Jenson Metcalfe, John Fleck, Mike Jones, Michael Jacobs and Paddy Madden all in the treatment room, which makes Chesterfield’s sixth-placed position in the table look even more impressive.

A number of factors could be behind it, whether it be the increased physicality of the division compared to the National League, and the age of certain players, whether that be those over 30 or those playing senior football for the first time. Training methods have also been looked at. Or it could just be that Chesterfield are having some bad luck. But whatever the reasons are, the Blues staff are determined to get to the bottom of it.

"It is always a discussion, 100%,” assistant manager Danny Webb said. “It is not ‘oh, bad luck, never mind.’ There are always discussions. A lot of them do come about, ironically, from bad luck, but you do have to have discussions, it would be ignorant if you didn’t do that. It would probably be quite arrogant. We do look into it, we discuss it but, at the same time, this season it has mainly been a bit of bad luck, like Tyrone Williams falling on his shoulder.”