Derby Faces Injury Crisis as Widell Zetterström Out for Two Months

Derby County’s season has taken another heavy blow, with first-choice goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterström ruled out for up to two months after suffering a knee injury.

The 28-year-old was hurt in the second half of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Birmingham City. For a moment it looked like his afternoon – and perhaps more – was over as he went down in clear discomfort. Instead, he stayed on, played through the pain and finished the game.

Only later did the full cost emerge.

The Swede has now withdrawn from the national squad and will miss Sweden’s four upcoming Nations League group fixtures against Romania, Poland and Bosnia-Herzegovina in late September and early October. For a player whose form at the World Cup had attracted serious transfer interest in the summer, it is a brutal interruption.

For Derby, the timing could hardly be worse.

Widell Zetterström is not expected back until mid-November. That lay-off could see him miss as many as eight Championship matches for a Rams side already staring at the wrong end of the table and creaking under the weight of an injury list that grows by the week.

The warning signs were there at St Andrew’s even before the keeper’s knee gave way. Henrik Meister had already been carried off on a stretcher after a head knock, another key piece stripped away from a squad that can ill afford it.

Now both join a crowded treatment room. Matt Clarke, Derry Murkin, Filip Bilbija, Rhian Brewster, Craig Forsyth and Lewis Travis are all sidelined, leaving Derby’s options stretched thin across the pitch and the medical staff working overtime.

Between the posts, at least, the plan is clear. Josh Vickers, named on the bench in every league game so far this season, is in line to step up as Widell Zetterström’s replacement. He inherits not just the gloves, but the responsibility of steadying a side in trouble and filling the void left by one of the club’s standout performers.

Derby fought hard to keep Widell Zetterström in the summer. Now they must find a way to cope without him, just as the season begins to bite.