O'Neil: Just Cramp for Enciso
Saturday, 22nd Aug 2026 19:19
Blues boss Gary O’Neil has allayed fans’ fears after man of the match Julio Enciso was subbed late on in the 2-1 victory over Sunderland, while giving updates on the fitness of Florentino Luis and Jaden Philogene.
Enciso was the pick of the Town players on his second debut for the club having rejoined on a permanent basis from Strasbourg, where O’Neil had been his manager, early in the week.
The Paraguayan international, who had created the Blues’ opening goal for Brazilian debutant Emersonn, was subbed after receiving treatment in the 71st minute.
But O’Neil says it was nothing to be concerned about: “Just cramp, which was good, not good, but better than being injured. He’ll be back on the grass on Monday.
“We’ve probably had three issues in pre-season, we’ve had Julio, Florentino and Abdul Fatawu and they’ve all joined the group late.
“The pre-season that the fitness staff have put together for our guys was exceptional, you can see how fit we are to still be pressing late on in the game in the way we were with the energy we put in today.
“Some of the ones that have joined us late are just taking a little bit longer. Obviously we were desperate to play Julio from today from the start but we’ve not seen much of him, you don’t know exactly where he is physically. So it’s important that we try and get these guys up to speed without losing them.
“Florentino will be back, hopefully, next weekend against United. Azor’s getting close. We’re trying to sign a couple in the next 10 days or however long is left in the window, so we’ll still get stronger.”
Reflecting further on midfielder Florentino, who signed from Burnley earlier in the summer, he continued: “He felt his calf after the Rayo Vallecano game. We didn’t think it was too much but it’s taken a little while to clear up.
“We were hoping that he’d make today but he just missed it. He’ll miss Tuesday \[the Carabao Cup tie at home to Leicester\], we definitely won’t risk him on Tuesday but we’re hoping he’ll be around it for Manchester United.”
Philogene made his return to action in last weekend’s final friendly as a half-time sub, but missed out today with a new knock having been out for most of pre-season with a hamstring issue.
“I should have remembered that yesterday,” O’Neil admitted. “I said everyone was good. He hurt his ankle in the Union Berlin game, so we’ll review him again this week.
“We don’t know how long he’s going to take. He had a little nick on the ligament from the Berlin game, so he was unavailable.”
_Photo: Reuters_