We are going to miss Wilson – Gouett
Dec 30 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal
MARK Gouett has sent a heart-felt message to injured defencemen Rob Wilson and Burt Henderson ahead of tonight’s trip to Nottingham Panthers – get well soon, we need you.
Player-coach Wilson has been struggling with a back injury for most of the Elite League season but the problem became unbearable in the warm-up to Saturday’s home match with Manchester Phoenix.
The Canadian had to pull out of the 3-2 defeat and will decide as late as possible whether to play tonight. It is typical of the Vipers’ injury woes this season. They had only just signed Likit Andersson to belatedly bolster a defensive unit deprived of Henderson until February.
As one of those who has had to bear the burden in his absence, Gouett (pictured left) feels the absence of Wilson and Henderson caught up with his team this week.
“If you look at the weekend games against Manchester, in six periods we played four very good ones and two not very good ones,” he reflected. “That’s the difference between teams in the upper half of the table and the lower half. If you take out an important piece of our powerplay and defensive unit like Rob Wilson, it’s going to have a big effect. He’s one of our go-to guys and a leader. We still don’t know if he’s going to be fit to face Nottingham yet. He’s day-to-day.
“We’ve been playing short on defence all season and to be honest a lot of what happened in the last game was down to us just running out of steam. Lobby (David Longstaff) got injured the other night too and when you’re only playing with 12 healthy players it can catch up on you.”
Gouett would love to see Wilson turn to the transfer market, but is realistic enough to realise that will not be the case. “It’s difficult signing players in the current climate because of all the costs involved,” he said.
“Burt Henderson will probably be back in February. When he comes back we will be adding a quality player there. Burt brings a lot to the team and I’ve always enjoyed playing with him. He takes some of the burden off me and some of the other players.”
