This week, there’s a round-up of the Oxford United international players, an injury update from Des Buckingham and another home game without defeat.
Oxford United Weekly Round-Up: International Yellows, Injury Update and West Brom Draw
International U’s
Mark Harris played 89 minutes as Wales edged past Montenegro in their Nations League fixture while Greg Leigh played a second successive 90 minutes in Jamaica’s win over Honduras.
Marselino Ferdinan played the second half as Indonesia lost against China before Dane Scarlett came on and scored as England U21s won 7-0 against Azerbaijan U21s.
Ciaron Brown and Peter Kioso were both on the bench for their fixtures, but the former came on just before the break as Northern Ireland won comfortably against Bulgaria.
‘Five Months That I Would’ve Been Out For’
Midfielder Cameron Brannagan has commented for the first time on the injury that has kept him sidelined.
The 28-year-old picked up the knock against Stoke and came close to requiring surgery for a medial collateral ligament (MCL). Fortunately, he has gone through a course of injections to prevent surgery.
He told BBC Radio Oxford’s The Dub podcast: “I’m going along well with my prehab and I’m working my way to getting back on the pitch now.
“It was better news than I expected, so I was quite happy with the news that I did get.
“At first, I got told I was going for surgery, which was obviously frustrating and probably would’ve been looking at about five months that I would’ve been out for.
“I got some good news this week that all my injections that I did have went well, and now it’s just a case of building up to hopefully getting on the pitch sooner rather than later.”
No timescale on a return has been announced, but he added: “The specialist did say ‘whenever your body is ready, you’ll be right’. It’ll just be a case of that to be honest.
“I’m hopefully trying to get on the pitch within four weeks, to try and train maybe, but that’s down to myself and my body, and how I feel.
“There’s no real time on it. It’s just when I’m ready to be honest.
“I’m itching to get back as you imagine. It’s killing me being in the physio room, but at the end of the day, I was probably a couple more strings in the MCL from having surgery.
“I got away with one and I was quite lucky. I’ve just got to make sure I come back right because the last thing I want is to do it again and be out for even longer. I need to make sure I’m right before I do anything.”
Oxford United Injury Update
On Friday, Des Buckingham provided an update on his injured players.
The U’s head coach would be hopeful that defensive duo Ben Nelson and Elliott Moore would be available for the weekend, but Josh McEachran would miss the match, but could be in contention for Derby on Tuesday.
With Joe Bennett and Cameron Brannagan both long-term absentees, Buckingham added that it would be a longer spell on the sidelines for Przemyslaw Placheta and Matt Phillips, with the duo likely out until the November international break.
Battle Against the Baggies
Oxford kept their unbeaten home form intact with a 1-1 draw against West Brom at Grenoble Road.
The Baggies, who will be pushing for promotion to the Premier League, took the lead midway through the first half and were the better side until the break.
However, Oxford came out of the interval and got hold of the game. Despite their second half dominance, Des Buckingham’s side had to wait until stoppage time for Dane Scarlett to nod home his first U’s goal.