Speaking to Bristol Live, Bristol City manager Lee Johnson has revealed that an ongoing shoulder problem was the reason why Aberdeen opted to bring an early end to Zak Vyner’s loan spell at Pittodrie.
In the late stages of the January transfer window, Aberdeen opted to bring an end to Bristol City defender Zak Vyner’s loan spell with the club, much to the surprise of supporters of both clubs.
In his time with Aberdeen, Vyner played in 18 games across all competitions, scoring one goal in the process and playing in a number of different roles as a right-back, centre-back and even in a defensive midfield role on occasion.
Now, Bristol City boss Lee Johnson has revealed why the Scottish Premiership side opted to send Vyner back to Ashton Gate, with a shoulder problem cited as the main issue. He said:
“Zak has trained the last three or four days but with Zak, Aberdeen effectively sent him back, not because he wasn’t performing, because he’s had an ongoing issue with his shoulder.
“Obviously Aberdeen have to pay the money and pay the wages and understandably, he’s probably too high a risk on whether his shoulder may pop out again as it has done previously. So we’ve got a choice, we either operate or we rehabilitate conservatively and try and build up the strength and build up the muscle.
“At the moment Zak is in a position where he can train, but he’s training non-contact. So if it’s seven-a-side, you might have two sevens and Zak as a floater. At the moment we’re protecting that shoulder-to-shoulder contact and we’ll let that time take it’s toll naturally.
“If he is fit then, of course, he comes into consideration, particularly because he’s a club developed player, and it gives us the option to potentially get Maenpaa on the bench or whatever we need to do on a Saturday,”
