Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leyton Orient will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Idris El Mizouni 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.
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.
113 minutes played. Diallang Jaiyesimi found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and AFC Wimbledon went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Arreguín 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
James Morris 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ollie O'Neill has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Leyton Orient will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Arreguín 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Josh Koroma takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Josh Koroma provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Accrington Stanley for Noah Phillips was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Idris El Mizouni 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Enzo Arreguín 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Leyton Orient are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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 Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Morris 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 words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Idris El Mizouni 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.
The name of Michael Craig has come up in conversations Leyton Orient were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aaron Connolly 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leyton Orient lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Idris El Mizouni 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.
Peter Wilson is 16, and Leyton Orient have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ollie O'Neill and Leyton Orient agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Morris 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Leyton Orient has been clear about where Zech Obiero stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Dom Ballard