Derby County Faces Injury Crisis as Widell Zetterstrom Ruled Out
Derby County’s season has taken another sharp turn for the worse, with first-choice goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterstrom facing up to two months on the sidelines after a knee injury.
The 28-year-old was hurt during the second half of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Birmingham City. For a few worrying moments it looked as though he would have to come off immediately, but he stayed on, played through the pain and finished the game. The damage, though, has now caught up with him.
Scans have forced Widell Zetterstrom to pull out of the Sweden squad for their upcoming Nations League campaign, which brings four group games against Romania, Poland and Bosnia-Herzegovina across late September and early October. Instead of building on his World Cup platform with more international minutes, he will be in the treatment room.
Derby do not expect him back until around mid-November. That timetable leaves the Rams staring at the prospect of as many as eight Championship fixtures without the man who has been their most secure presence in a turbulent start to the season. For a side already stuck in the lower reaches of the table, the timing could hardly be worse.
The blow landed on a day when Derby’s luck seemed to unravel in real time. Before Widell Zetterstrom’s knee problem, Henrik Meister had already been taken off on a stretcher after a head knock, another worrying scene in a bruising afternoon at St Andrew’s. One by one, key players are being stripped away.
The casualty list is now uncomfortably long: Matt Clarke, Derry Murkin, Filip Bilbija, Rhian Brewster, Craig Forsyth and Lewis Travis are all out, and now Widell Zetterstrom and Meister join them. It is no longer an injury concern; it is an injury crisis.
Widell Zetterstrom’s absence cuts deepest because of what he represents. Derby fought hard to keep him in the summer after his World Cup performances drew serious transfer interest. Retaining him felt like a small victory, a statement that the club still had the power to hold on to its best players. Now that anchor has gone missing, at least temporarily.
Josh Vickers is expected to step in, having been named on the bench for every game so far this season. He now moves from understudy to leading man, asked to steady a defence already patched together and under pressure.
For Derby, this isn’t just about surviving a rough spell of injuries. With their main goalkeeper out, a stretched squad, and a demanding run of fixtures ahead, the next two months will say a lot about where this campaign is really heading.
