22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jihlava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Marvis Ogiomade was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadMatyáš Vopršal falls out with a teammate over standards
BoardroomThe Jihlava production line keeps running
Viktoria Plzen go through and Jihlava go home, 1‑6 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
1-6, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jihlava they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jihlava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Rogelio González on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Jihlava and Viktoria Plzen.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jihlava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jihlava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad9 Jun 2036
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matyáš Vopršal is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Jihlava know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jihlava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A performance of 8.59 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 Dec 2035
Tomáš Kocour was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.