Derby County concern raised as 'big' player blow revealed - 'it’s a massive loss' | OneFootball

FLW's Rams Fan Pundit reveals his thoughts on Sondre Langås' reported recovery time

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Derby County concern has been raised following reports that Sondre Langås is set for around two months on the sidelines due to his hamstring injury.

As per Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway’s national team manager, Ståle Solbakken, broke the news regarding Langås on Monday evening, and claimed how it could affect the 25-year-old’s chances of making the World Cup squad.

Aside from the centre-back's prospective future with Løvene (the Lions), FLW's Derby County Fan Pundit, Shaun Woodward, also thinks it's a massive loss for the Rams as well - especially when factoring in a potential promotion push.

Derby County missing Sondre Langås for two months is 'a huge loss'

When asked for his immediate thoughts regarding the aforementioned Langås update, Woodward was in no doubt about the scale of this setback for both player and club.

"Yeah, lets not beat around the bush, it’s a huge loss," Woodward said.

"He’s our best centre-half, our quickest centre-half, he can also play at right-back and at this time of the season you want your strongest players out on the pitch. Especially as we’re now trying to get in that playoff push," the Fan Pundit added.

Part of what makes this such a big blow is that Langås is not just another body at the back, he has grown into one of John Eustace’s most trusted players.

The Derby boss has shown how highly he rates the Norwegian by trusting him with the captain’s armband on occasions when both Lewis Travis (and Ebou Adams) had been unavailable.

Woodward continued by telling FLW, "And also for him, it’s a big disappointment with the World Cup around the corner. So, fitness is key to him and form, it’s a real shame.

"Hopefully he can come back towards the back end of the season and kind of go into the summer with the best chance of getting into that World Cup squad."

The Norwegian needed surgery on his knee at the end of last season - saying to BBC Radio Derby it was "hard to describe how painful" things became as he played through the issue during Derby’s run‑in for survival.

Perhaps one saving grace is that it's not his knee again, but still, for saying Langås had a delayed start to 25/26, this is definitely a huge loss, as Woodward suggests.

Derby County are 'lucky' but 'can't underestimate' the loss of Sondre Langås

The immediate 'positive', if you can call it that, for Eustace is that Derby showed in their 5-0 win over Bristol City that they can still produce dominant performances even without Langås in the side.

By then, the centre-back was already confirmed to be suffering with a hamstring injury, and wasn’t in the squad alongside the ill No. 1 Jacob Widell Zetterstrom. Woodward thinks the club still shouldn't dismiss how big of a loss it is, even after saying Derby are 'lucky' with the cover they have.

The Fan Pundit concluded, "For Derby, it’s a massive loss. We’re lucky we’ve got Sanderson and Clarke, who played very well together against Bristol City. Also, we’ve got Danny Batth who can support them two as well, so we are okay with centre-halves. It’s just that we can’t underestimate the loss of Langas, because he is our best one.

"It’s a big blow for Derby and himself for Norway."

One thing Woodward didn't mention was the decision to let Curtis Nelson move on to MK Dons, which could be questioned now in light of Langås' injury update. This is because, behind Batth, the next in line as cover in the middle of defence is Craig Forsyth.

Using Sanderson as an example, Eustace revealed in January that the ex-Birmingham City captain has been playing through some shin splint problems. So, if anything further happens to either one of him, or Clarke, then it could be a worrying time for Derby.