Watford breathe sigh of relief over Chakvetadze injury
Seeing Giorgi Chakvetadze stood outside Vicarage Road an hour after the final whistle, chatting to fans and having pictures taken, was almost like getting an extra point from the 1-1 draw with Coventry City.
The prospects for the Georgian looked bleak when, out of nowhere, he was laying motionless on his back just in front of the dug-outs in the second half.
The action had been in the Watford box but, when the ball went dead, attention suddenly turned to Chakvetadze and physios, medics and finally stretcher-bearers were called onto the pitch.
Having been carefully eased onto a back-board and slid onto the stretcher, he was carried off down the tunnel with his hands over his face.
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Sixty minutes later he was smiling and engaging with fans outside The Hornet Shop, underlining what his head coach had thought immediately after the game.
“The early signs are good. I don’t want to count my chickens just yet, but the early signs are good,” said Tom Cleverley.
“We think it was a back spasm, and that can be a bit scary from a player’s point of view as it’s not something you pick up every day.
“It just immobilised his back a little bit and the early signs are good.
“I’m sure it’s an accumulation of playing two games for Georgia and then coming back here and playing a really intense box-to-box game.
“He was involved in our key moment by setting up the goal, but I’m sure if you asked him he’d say he was a bit sloppy a couple of times today, and I’d agree with him.
“He can be better, but he is creating big chances every game and now the real challenge for him and for me, as his coach, is to get him on the scoresheet more.
“A big positive to come out of the second half was that the early signs with Giorgi’s injury were good.”
Aside from that, the other main second-half positive was the way Watford responded to being a goal behind and having been outplayed for most of the first half.
It was the sort of scenario seen all too often last season, and for the past few campaigns, which often led to defeat.
“I was massively pleased with the reaction in the second half,” said Cleverley.
“I think we can all agree, since I retired as a player, that today is the kind of game we have lost.
“That was my fear at half-time, that the game fizzles out and we end up losing by two or three.
“We were lucky to be only one down at half-time, and I said to the players don’t let that luck go by the wayside.
“I thought we were the much better side in the second half.”
