Watford selection update on 23-year-old emerges ahead of Sheffield Wednesday trip
Watford boss Tom Cleverley has said Mattie Pollock wasn’t taken off last weekend because of an injury.
Watford decided to substitute the centre-back during their 1-0 win over Blackburn Rovers at Vicarage Road due to tactical reasons.
Pollock, 23, has been a key player so far this season for the Hornets and is getting plenty of game time.
Cleverley has said, as per a report by the Watford Observer: “It wasn’t a forced substitution but he was struggling big time. He felt a crack in his elbow in the first half, but he’s a warrior and carried on. But it wasn’t a forced substitution, it was just something that I have always said to the players: if we are drawing with 20/25 minutes to go we will be going for it at home.
“So we did that and it paid off. It’s a 16-man game now and you can use five subs to re-energise the team, and you can even take it to the next level with the strength of our squad. We’re not having a squad of 15 or 16 first-team players and then filling the gaps with lads from the Under-21s. We have 20 players in every squad who can really impact the game.”
He added: “It felt like one of those matches at half-time that was going to be impacted and won or lost by the substitutes and today’s ours had a stronger impact, like they have for most of the season.”
Watford selection update
Pollock has become an important member of Watford’s squad under Cleverley.
He is under contract with the Hornets until the summer of 2026.
The defender joined the Hertfordshire outfit in 2021 and has since played 37 matches for them in all competitions to date, 13 of which have come in this campaign.
Pollock played for Middlesbrough and Leeds United as a youngster before linking up with Grimsby Town.
He then broke into the Mariners’ first-team as a teenager and made 58 appearances altogether during his time at Blundell Park, chipping in with four goals form defence.
The Surrey-born man was loaned out by Watford to Cheltenham Town and Aberdeen to get some experience under his belt before he nailed down a place in their starting XI.
What now?
As Cleverley alluded to, he wasn’t taken off injured against Blackburn Rovers which means he should be fine to play on Saturday.
The Hornets head to Hillsborough to lock horns with Sheffield Wednesday.
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