I’VE continued to look into what has caused the recent glut of injuries we’ve had and I’ve decided I might actually start designing my own football boots.

The boots the players wear nowadays are just a complete waste of space and provide no protection to the heel, the Achilles or any part of the foot at all.

When I was playing if you kicked someone else’s foot then it was them who got injured and suffered the bruising but that’s not the case anymore.

Sadly it’s indicative of the way football is going and it’s no longer as simple as beating the team in front of you.

Nowadays it’s all about how you do it and where the players are concerned it’s about what they look like too.

All footballers seem to have to have certain hair-styles, beards and tattoos at the moment and it’s difficult to change that because we’re a world of branding now.

But when I played at Meet the Blues Day before the season started I borrowed a pair of Ryan Leonard’s boots and my feet felt naked in them.

I would much rather wear a boot that offered me protection from injury than one that looked good.

It’s something I’ve mentioned to the chairman because I know one of the directors is very involved with Hi-Tec.

This is something which I’m taking very seriously because we’ve had seven injures in the past few weeks and I honestly do think five of them were caused by the boots the players were wearing.

SCAN RESULTS ARE BACK

WE’VE had the results back from the injuries suffered by Myles Weston and Stephen McLaughlin but we’re still not clear when they will be coming back.

The scans showed up bad bruising and nothing more sinister which is good news but it’s frustrating we’re unable to put a timescale on their treatment and I am unable to say when they will be back.

It’s a real nuisance for them though because even when they’re walking it’s putting pressure on the painful area.

IDEAL TIMING FOR A BREAK

IN an ideal world we would obviously have preferred to still be in the FA Cup but I do feel this little break we’re having is also a blessing in disguise.

When I was at Bolton Wanderers and Hull City we had international breaks and I’m treating like gap in games the same way.

We gave the players a few days off to rest and recuperate but we’ve brought them back in now to prepare for the Millwall game next Tuesday.

In terms of preparation we’re treating that game as a Saturday at the end of our week and it’s been good for the players.

It’s given those who are injured more time to get back and those who have knocks, like Jack Payne, time to recover.

Jack has been playing through the pain with a knee problem but this break we’re having means he will be able to get over that now and it’s the same with Dave Worrall and his head injury.

As well as that, we’ve also been able to have a really good look at Millwall.

We watched them against Burton Albion on Tuesday night and we will be at their game with Wycombe Wanderers at the weekend so it will give us a really good idea of how they play.

WE CAME CLOSE TO SIGNING A STRIKER

SINCE my last column, the loan window has come and gone and we did come close to bringing in a striker from a Championship club.

He’s someone with a bit of experience but I won’t give away much else because I don’t warm to harm my chances of getting him in January.

In terms of players going out we had a few enquiries, most of which were for Jason Williams.

But I said to the chairman that we couldn’t afford to let anyone go out on loan because of how many injuries we have at the moment.