Bristol Rovers have suffered a blow after manager Joey Barton confirmed that Harry Anderson is to undergo surgery in the coming days to fix his ongoing injury problems.
The 26-year-old has struggled with a groin problem this season that saw him miss a large chunk of action between October and January. The winger has featured in each of the Pirates’ last six matches as he looked to put his injury concerns behind him. However, speaking to the media ahead of Saturday’s clash with Barnsley at the Memorial Stadium, Barton confirmed that Anderson has suffered a reoccurrence of the issue and will undergo surgery to hopefully solve the problem once and for all.
Via Bristol Post, Barton said: “We just had a little setback with Harry Anderson and it hasn’t settled.
“He’s going to require a little bit of surgery, which will take him out for four weeks or something like that. It is a bit of a blow for H, he’s had a bit of a stop-start season. It’s his groin.
“I don’t know if he’s got a hernia rumbling on. He’s come back to training and he is not quite moving right. He’s seen the specialist today and they say they are going to operate in the morning to get him back with games to spare.
“It’s a nightmare for H, he’s had lots of setbacks with it, but unfortunately, sometimes you have got to go under the surgeon’s knife and that is the only way to resolve an issue to get you back near 100 per cent.”
The former Lincoln City man will see his contract expire at the end of the current campaign and although talks have taken place over an extension, a breakthrough is yet to materialise. Anderson will be hoping that the surgery will be a success and that he will be able to feature heavily during Rovers’ run-in and earn himself a new deal.
Barton continued though, warning the player that the club may have to reluctantly cut ties should he fail to prove his fitness: “I really like Harry, I think he is a great team man.
“We had a conversation with him in and around Christmas and we didn’t manage to get the signature on the contract, and then subsequently he has had a couple of injuries.
“We are still speaking and talking to him and, for me as a manager, I am really keen to keep Harry with the group and part of the squad, but that will depend on how fit he can stay and how long he is going to be on the treatment table.
“He has had a bit of a disrupted season and from Harry’s perspective, his missus is pregnant and he’s wanting a bit of stability, but obviously, from the club’s perspective, we can’t sign people who are injured and keep getting injured.”
Anderson will be targeting a return in early April and is likely to miss the next five fixtures for the South Western team.
Writers View
This is undoubtedly a blow for Harry Anderson. He would have been hoping that his injury problems were behind him after missing such a large part of the season, but was clearly playing through the pain barrier in recent weeks.
Barton – for what its worth – seems desperate to keep the player at the Memorial Stadium and is willing to give him every opportunity to earn himself a new deal. He was a key part of Rovers’ promotion-winning team last season and he will have been hoping to prove his worth in England’s third tier once more after two seasons in the division with Lincoln City prior to his move to Bristol.
Here’s hoping Anderson has a speedy recovery and he is back on the pitch as soon as possible.
