Grimsby Town boss David Artell blames the ‘horrific’ design of a goalpost at Carlisle United for a freak injury to keeper Jake Eastwood.
Concerns have been raised over the design of the goalposts at Brunton Park with the goalkeeper facing a lengthy lay-off.
Jake Eastwood ended up being stretchered off after Sam Lavell netted the opening goal for Carlisle. He is now expected to be sidelined for six months as he undergoes surgery to repair a ruptured patellar tendon.
The 27-year-old suffered the injury while sliding into a goal post in an effort to block Lavelle’s header. Coming on in his place was teenager Seb Auton for his senior debut, the Mariners going on to win 3-2.
Grimsby also have Jordan Wright out due to a shoulder injury, meaning Auton is the only keeper in the first-team squad for Tuesday night’s game at League Two leaders Gillingham.
Here’s some images of the freak injury, plus what Artell had to say…
Although a ‘freak’ accident, falling on this part of the goal with your knee is going to cause serious injury as Jake Eastwood found out on Sat and will be recovering from for the next 6 months. IF a @forza_goal was the culprit, they HAVE to investigate. It’s like a blade!#gtfc pic.twitter.com/iX2du0oxBU
— Grimsby Exiles (@GTFC_Exiles) September 30, 2024
???? “He’ll be out for an extended period of time”
???? @officialgtfc head coach David Artell confirms that goalkeeper Jake Eastwood has had an operation to repair his patellar tendon.
???? Suscribe on @BBCSounds: https://t.co/X8WTS04gfy#GTFC | #BBCFootball | @RadioHumberside pic.twitter.com/84NuqalBpS
— BBC Humberside Sport (@HumbersideSport) September 30, 2024
Grimsby head coach David Artell told BBC Radio Humberside: “You can’t have such a sharp piece of metal sticking out right behind the posts. These goals are widely used but it’s obviously a design flaw because that can’t happen.
“We now lose a goalkeeper for an extended period of time because of the design of a goal.
“If it’s any consolation it’s his knee and not his head, because it could have been absolutely disastrous.”
Speaking to the club media, he added: “It’s a bit of a freak accident but then the design of the goal is horrific.
“You can’t have that happening to [people] because of the design of the goals.
“And that is what it is – unequivocal. It sums up our luck at the moment with regard to injuries.
“He had an operation yesterday on his knee.
“It’s not particularly good news. We think he’s out for a fairly extended period of time with his patellar tendon.
“I went to see him at the hospital, and he’s in as good a spirits as you can be at this stage.
“He’ll come back. We’ve exchanged messages this morning, he’ll be at home for a couple of weeks, then we’ll get him back in and start his rehab.”
You can see the freak injury in the videos below…
Carlisle head coach Mike Williamson: “I thought in the first half, we controlled it quite well. The boys were showing the bravery we want, you can start to see things that we’ve been working on and what we’re trying to implement.
“I don’t think I’ve seen more of a clear penalty in my life before we scored.
“I thought the boys moved the ball really well. I thought we were in control.
“Then they came out in the second half and they gave everything. That’s my main point when watching a group of players. The honesty and the hard work is there.
“We just need to keep improving the concentration and sticking to the principles because I feel as though we came out sluggish and that happens.”
Carlisle were well on top in the first-half, and there was a lot to be positive about. The second-half was vastly different, the club media asked Mike what he put that down to, he responded: “Obviously fatigue sets in. We’re asking the boys to do certain things and under that duress and stress, it makes that more difficult. But we know this is a process and we know the boys come in every single day and they really want to understand it and they want to work their socks off. And that’s what we need.
“The levels dropped off and we were disappointed and the boys are disappointed with it.”
On Grimsby’s goalkeeper going off injured, and was replaced by a 16 year-old, who Carlisle didn’t test. Mike said: “That was disappointing. We got into good positions in the second half and then it just broke down before we were able to enter the 18-yard box. But again, the boys, ran, fought, and battled.
“We lacked a bit of concentration. We turned it over too easily. We got pulled about and we lost our shape.
“But these are things that we can watch it back and we can improve.”
The early shout for a penalty: “Well, the fourth official said that he had the same view as us, which looked blatant, but the ref had a better angle.
“He said that he just saw a Carlisle player go over the top of the Grimsby player and he didn’t see anything wrong with it. So, for me, I’ve seen it back and it was a difficult one to take.”
On the opening goal, Mike said: “Sam’s a leader, he’s a real character in that dressing room, which we need. But we’ve got many of them, so I’m sure we’ll dust ourselves off and we’ve got a really tough game Tuesday.”
Harry Lewis made several good saves for United, yet we conceded three disappointing goals. Mike added: “He made a few good saves. Their xG was really low, which on any given day, you feel as though you’re keeping a clean sheet. But that is life and we’ve got to make sure that we watch it back and we react to it and we improve.
Twitter users reacted as the Grimsby boss blames the ‘horrific’ design of the goalpost at Carlisle for the freak injury to their keeper…
@fullgason: That’s a bad design, accident waiting to happen, makes you wonder what the process was to have this design accepted.
@HertsGTFC: @EFL @PFA one to have a look at before another player gets injured.
@MikeyMcMahon: This sounds horrific. First thoughts with Jake and hope he makes a full and speedy recovery If some goals are designed like this & presenting such a clear risk, I wonder whether we will go down the legal route. They are clearly unsafe and thankfully it was ‘just’ his knee #gtfc
@lauragale1989: Well I wasn’t expecting 6 months ???? Speedy recovery Jake..
@1Ashlxy: Roughly the time I was expecting but still a blow. Hopefully our emergency loan keeper can keep us steady. #GTFC
@ArtellCartel: Another game, another “extended period of time”. We’ll run out of players by christmas at this rate #gtfc
@GTFC44Fish:
FUCKING HELL WE ARE FUCKED
Davies out
Wright out
Thompson out
Vernam out
Eastwood out
The list goes on and on
We need emergency loans or free agents fast otherwise we are doomed #GTFC
