Marked for Azat Zainutdinov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Marat Murtazaev damages knee ligaments — 53 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Azat Zainutdinov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 139 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marat Murtazaev
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irtysh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marat Murtazaev
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irtysh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Nov 2026
41 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marat Murtazaev
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irtysh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Azat Zainutdinov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Irtysh
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Irtysh are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Irtysh, and it is not being withdrawn.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
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Squad
Tempers go at Irtysh
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Irtysh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Azat Zainutdinov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irtysh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Irtysh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Karam Sūltanov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irtysh can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irtysh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match12 Aug 2026
Irtysh bow out of the cup
Okzhetpes go through and Irtysh go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market17 Aug 2026
Taraz come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Irtysh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Irtysh
Lawrence Nicholas 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Maxim Abiken did the work nobody counts — 6.73
13 combined actions and 6.73. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Azat Zainutdinov 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Irtysh has been clear about where Serikzhan Akhmetov stands, which is more than many ever get.