Miller Gone for the Season

well, that's it... the gods of football are just not with the albion this year. the scans on ishamel miller's knee have revealed that the injury he sustained in sunday's match with pompey is not the medial ligament damage (with a minimum of 6 weeks recovery) that TM was expecting immediately following the match when talking to the press. it is much worse. the scans showed that the injury is actually cruciate knee ligament damage that will put miller out for the rest of the season, with a projected recovery time of 6-9 months.

the saddest aspect of this, i think, is that it looked a ball he should never have gone after so vigorously. but to his credit, i think he felt that a goal was coming and he was on pace, looking the most likely to finish in a series of fast breaking moves at goal that the baggies fashioned in the last 20 minutes of the game. his enthusiasm got the better of him and was mangled in going for a ball that always looked to be the portsmouth keeper's, david james. miller got his leg stuck under the sprawling, outstretched james as his body twisted awkwardly forward, causing him to take a head-over-heels tumble with his right leg still trapped, causing the injury. he also required a few stitches in his head.

the great shame of all this is that miller, after a slow start to the season, has scored 3 goals in 7 matches and has been improving with each subsequent performance. he was positively menacing and had been getting by far the better of the play against veteran pompey full-back and england international, sol campbell all day. you could see that he felt that he was on a goal after forcing a good save from david james; and had also managed to get on the end of a couple of good balls into the box. the biggest disappointment, i think, is that it takes miller out of the game at the worst possible time - not only to the baggies season; but as a professional footballer, it's possible that the development, experience and playing time he will miss could have a permanent affect on seeing him reach his true potential as a premier league heavy-weight. he will have lost an entire year now, in a profession that by nature sees generally short careers at the very top-flight. for his own sake, i hope he keeps his head together, but for a 21 year old - and in the game of football, 9 months is an eternity. there is only a certain number of years in your 20s that you can be as big, strong and fast as miller is right now - and he is at one of those crucial junctures where learning his craft is of the essence, and timely recovery and a good head-space is going to be critical for him.

as for the rest of us, i hope he comes back to the game and fulfills his potentials with only some time lost. i've seen too much football in my time that featured short careers and unfulfilled potentials. although it's far too early to be even talking about writing a guy off at 21, there is no telling of what the long term consequences might be, especially psychologically. there's the rest of the season gone - and with whatever might happen to the baggies from here on out - miller will not be a factor and will never know what he might have contributed and gone on to from his recent and developing goal-scoring form.