Grant won't give up on O'Hara
AVRAM GRANT refuses to concede defeat in the battle to get Jamie O'Hara fit for the FA Cup final.
Pompey's player of the season is a massive doubt for Saturday's showpiece against Chelsea at Wembley.
A stress fracture of the back has left the 23-year-old in agony, despite several pain-killing injections over the past fortnight.
The loanee from Spurs needs another eight weeks complete rest to recover properly.
Yet this is the FA Cup final at stake – and O'Hara is attempting to rush through his rehabilitation.
For Grant, he can draw inspiration from the scenario in the week leading up to the semi-final when nine players were injured.
All but one ultimately featured in the 2-0 triumph over Spurs.
And the Blues boss remains upbeat over the chances of another miracle recovery from one of his many walking wounded.
Grant said: 'With Jamie we will look at him tomorrow or Friday – but I think he can do it.
'Before the semi-final, if you'd have told me four players would have played I would tell you that you were crazy.
'I would not believe Dindane and Boateng could run the stats they did.
'But this is about football and what you can achieve in the mind. You can achieve many things you don't even dream about.
'We are speaking about hearts, we are speaking about minds.
'Our players have shown all this before.
'What happened in the semi-final, no book can explain that.
'It's not an injury which will stop Jamie playing in the future, we are only thinking about this week.
'Of course we are speaking with Tottenham and have a very good relationship.
'We will not hurt the player. The question is if he can play this week or not.'
O'Hara is not the only one facing a race against time to be fit for the Wembley return.
Prince Boateng (ankle), Aruna Dindane (groin), Marc Wilson (hamstring), Hassan Yebda (thigh) and Richard Hughes (hamstring) are also struggling.
Meanwhile, Nadir Belhadj, below left, has returned to training as Grant looks to bolster his options.
The startling injury list is nothing new to the Pompey boss, whose small squad has been decimated by unavailabilities in recent months.
And it is a headache he has learnt to cope with.
Grant added: 'I told the players when the problems started I knew we would have injuries because the squad is very short.
'There are more than 50 per cent who didn't play regularly in the past year so we knew that there would be injuries.
'We have instead concentrated on three things; fighting spirit, tactics and to try in any situation to play football, not kick and run, good football.
'And I am very proud of this. We did it.'
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -5 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
