Morecambe boss left frustrated by player absences

The Shrimps are preparing for life back in the National League after relegation from the EFL was confirmed on Easter Monday.

They had been without nine and 11 players respectively for Good Friday’s trip to Bromley and Monday’s home match with Salford City.

Injuries and illness have been an issue all season with prolonged absences for some of Adams’ key men: most notably Stuart Moore, George Ray, Gwion Edwards and Lee Angol.

Moore, the club’s first choice keeper at the start of the season, featured regularly until picking up a hip injury at Harrogate Town in November.

He returned against Lincoln City the following month but a thigh problem and a subsequent operation have kept him out since.

Ray went off at half-time on the opening day at Walsall and missed the next three months before two appearances in November.

His season was eventually written off in February, with Adams explaining the 31-year-old could train one day and then need two off.

Edwards has only featured in 29 of Morecambe’s 52 matches this season, having had lengthy spells out with groin and ankle injuries.

As for Angol, a hamstring injury picked up in September kept him out until late January after which he scored six times in the next 14 matches.

That finishing ability up front is something the Shrimps have lacked in their struggle to turn defeats into draws or draws into victories.

Adams said: “A lot of them are impact injuries that happen in games. They are injuries that aren’t preventable and that’s the biggest thing for us this season.

“It’s ill fortune, that’s sometimes what happens in football and you’ve just got to get on with it.

“The EFL does a study every year and they look at our injury record. These injuries aren’t in training.

“We’ve got the lowest record for players picking up injuries in training, they actually had to call us and say to us ‘Are the reports correct because you don’t have a lot of players getting injured in training?’

“It’s good to get these reports from the EFL, they want to see where these injuries are picked up.”