The lowdown on Swansea City’s defensive injuries
Swansea City have had a few injuries to contend with in recent weeks, mainly in the defensive positions.
Right-backs Kyle Naughton and Angel Rangel have sustained knocks, with Rangel’s the most serious of the lot as he’s ruled out for the remainder of the 2016/17 campaign.
It’s unknown yet if Naughton will be fully fit to return at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday to face Bournemouth, but he has returned to training following a hamstring injury in the Swans’ 3-2 win versus Burnley a couple of weeks ago.
Hopefully the former Spurs full-back will be ready to face the Cherries, however if he’s not, it’s up to Paul Clement to decide on another player to fill in at right-back. Read Swansea writer Jack Evans discusses the other possible solutions HERE.
At centre-back, there’s no injury news, thankfully. You’d expect Clement to start Alfie Mawson and Federico Fernandez at Bournemouth as he has done since becoming the Swansea boss.
And now for the left-back issue. New signing Martin Olsson is sidelined for the trip to the Vitality after acquiring an ankle injury in the recent 2-1 loss to Hull City. Olsson was injured at the KCOM Stadium last Saturday, but was forced to remain on the field in the second-half due to Clement already making his three available substitutions (even two of those three subs were because of injuries to Rangel and Fernando Llorente).
Clement has said that Stephen Kingsley will be the man to replace Olsson at left-back and I haven’t got any issues with that. Since breaking onto the scene at the Liberty Stadium, I’ve always liked the Scotsman and he’s a very decent back-up option.
I think it was a tad unfair that Kingsley was the number-two option at left-back under Bob Bradley, when Neil Taylor was massively underperforming in that position.
Although, now, Kingsley will get his chance to impress the new manager and he’ll definitely help with the competition in that position, even though Olsson should definitely remain first-choice at the moment after an exceptional start to his career in the famous white shirt. It’ll be a big game for Kingsley but I have the uttermost confidence he will be able to put in a shift.