PIETERS ABSENT FOR WOLVES DEFEAT
Posted on April 30, 2022 in Stoke
Former Stoke City defender Erik Pieters was a major absentee for his Burnley side during the 1-0 win at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers in a Premier League clash played on Sunday. The Dutchman has been missingfor several weeks due to a knee injury. The former Stoke City left-back started the season as a second choice left-sided defender at Burnley behind first choice Charlie Taylor. He was able to get a lot of playing time after Taylor picked up an injury during the season. Pieters, who moved from Stoke City to Burnley some years ago, joined others in the treatment room shortly after Taylor returned from injury.
Caretaker manager Mike Jackson spoke about Pietersin his pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of the home game with Wolves. Jackson told reporters that the Dutch international is back running on the grass, but he didn’t put a timescale on his return to the first team. Ex-Stoke City man Pieters is one of the six players in the treatment room at Burnley who are trying to avoid relegation to the English Championship at the end of this season. The other players in the treatment room are Jay Rodriguez (calf), Johann Berg Gudmundson (calf), Ben Mee (calf), Maxwel Cornet (knee) and Ashley Westwood (ankle).
Jackson has done well since he was appointed as caretaker manager on the back of the dismissal of Sean Dyche by the club owner. He has picked up seven points from the maximum points including all the three points from the Wolves game thanks to the strike from Czech international MatejVydra just after the hour mark.
With the slim win over Wolves at the weekend, Burnley were able to move out of the relegation zone. They are now two points clear of Merseyside giants Everton who are third from bottom three.