Another injury for Thomas

Last updated : 06 March 2007 By Tony Scholes
He had a second scan on his knee yesterday that revealed a tear in his cartilage and had an operation in the afternoon which went successfully. He is now in rehabilitation although no date has been put on a return.

Thomas is not the most popular of players at Turf Moor, and there's no doubt that he hasn't helped himself at times, but he's been in good form recently and was beginning to show why manager Steve Cotterill went chasing him before the start of last season.

He's certainly had some bad luck at Burnley. In his first month at the club he was wrongly sent off and then two days later suffered a cruciate ligament injury. Thankfully that didn't need surgery in the end but later last season he had an operation on a knee injury and then suffered a metatarsal injury at Stoke in March which ruled him out for the rest of the season.

This season he's twice had spells on the sidelines with injuries, plus a lengthy suspension, and now could be ruled out for much of the rest of the season if not all,

He's started just 36 league games for the Clarets, but injuries are something that he's not experienced prior to arriving at Burnley. A quick glance at his playing record over previous seasons show that he's played most of the games and had never been ruled out for a lengthy period.

Popular or not, I think Wayne Thomas deserves a bit of luck next season, certainly one free of injury.