The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Skonto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Skonto know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Skonto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Roberts Jurkovskis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alvis Laizans trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ordabasy have kept their man, and Skonto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Skonto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcis Jagodinskis 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.
The phone has started ringing about Marcis Zjuzins again, and this time the name on the line is Metta/LU. Skonto are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Skonto has been clear about where Tadas Girdvainis stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutAlvis Laizans knocks on the manager's door