Posted on February 9, 2012
Long-time Jamaican international midfielder Ricardo Gardner’s season is in jeopardy at Bolton Wanderers.
The 33-year-old Gardner has undergone knee surgery to prepare an injury and is likely to miss the rest of the English Premier League season.
During his pre-match press conference for Saturday’s game against Wigan, Bolton manager Owen Coyle talked about Gardner’s situation.
“I don’t think that it’s cut and dry regarding Ricardo’s injury,” Owen told reporters. “It’s looking like it will be a long time and that’s frustrating because he’s such a top lad and outstanding player. He’s been unlucky with injuries in the past and certainly during my time here at Bolton Wanderers.”
Garnder has not played since he received a 3-1 yellow card in a 3-1 loss to Swansea City at Liberty Stadium in October.
“He was playing ever so well earlier in the season and then got sent off in the game at Swansea,” Coyle said. “From that he had taken a knock and it just seemed to snowball from there.”
Coyle there was a possibility that Gardner could have played with Bolton, but it was shot down.
“There was an opiton in which we could have patched it up and he could have played the last couple of months of the season, within doing that there was no guaranteed that would have prevented it from getting progressively worse.
“The other option was to make sure it was totally cleaned out and that’s the way the specialist wanted it. That then hopefully gives him another couple of years playing at the highest level.”
As for next season, that remains to be seen. Gardner has played with Bolton for 14 years — since 1998.
“Ricardo’s in the same boat as a number of players who are out of contract at the end of the season,” Coyle said. “Ricardo is someone on a personal level I’ve got so much time for
“He was out of contract at the end of last season and we gave him another year. It is frustrating for everyone involved. The contract situation is something we’ll look at in the summer.”
Gardner has scored 21 goals in 347 appearances for Bolton. He also has represented Jamaica 109 times, scoring nine goals.
Photo: Ricardo Gardner, battling Steve Ralston for the ball in an international match years ago, may have played his final game for Bolton this EPL season. Andy Mead/YCJ
Categories: Caribbean, Jamaica
Tags: Botlon Wandrers, English Premier League, Owen Coyle, Ricardo Gardner
Loading ...
