Nigel Pearson admits time is running out for Tomas Kalas to play again for Bristol City this season casting further doubt over his future at the club with his contract expiring this summer.
Kalas has endured an injury-plagued campaign as knee and groin issues dating back to last March have limited him to only seven appearances this season, amounting to just 378 minutes of first-team action.
After a setback during the Severnside Derby defeat to Cardiff City seven weeks ago, there was hope that the Czech Republic defender could get back before the end of the campaign to prove his fitness and therefore long-term worth.
However, with three games of the 2022/23 season remaining - Rotherham United and Burnley at home followed by QPR away on the final day of the season on May 8 - after returning to training this week his prospects don’t appear too good, with Pearson empathising with the centre-back’s situation.
“He keeps having little setbacks which are not anything major but I think for him it remains a real frustration,” Pearson said. “I feel for him in that regard. I’m still hopeful that we’ll see him again this season but with three games left, you’re sort of running out of time.
“He’ll be back with us again next week and then we’ll see how things develop. Rather than add even more pressure to him I think if it’s in our and his best interests - he’ll either play or he won’t play. That’s how it looks, but it’s certainly been really frustrating for Tom.
“It’s a season for him which has lots of incidents and setbacks which he could really do without.”
Kalas and Jay Dasilva are the only remaining first-team regulars who become free agents this summer and whose futures are yet to be fully determined, or at least confirmed publicly by the manager.
Having signed a lucrative deal four years ago, and turning 30 next month with one-and-a-half seasons of injury issues, City need to weigh up the value of what they know Kalas is capable of doing on the field against what he can produce in terms of his durability.
Kalas is a high-level Championship defender, evidenced by his performance against Manchester City in the League Cup shortly before his injury, but there seems little sense in making a contract offer without some level of assurance he can complete a certain number of games in a season.
While, from the player’s perspective, although unquestionably he’ll need to take a significant wage reduction - whether that be at City or elsewhere - he still knows his own worth based on his impressive CV and reputation.
“Most players do (know) but there are still question marks over one or two and we’ll just have to see how things move over the next few weeks,” Pearson added. “The players need to know first so I’m not going to speculate over those type of issues.”
There is good news on the injury front for City with midfielder Joe Williams part of the squad again and in contention to feature in the matchday 18 against the Millers after concerns his season would be over.
Williams suffered a hamstring injury in the same game against Cardiff that Kalas exited later in the second half, and the original prognosis was the 26-year-old wouldn’t be back until pre-season but Pearson has revealed he’s fit again.
“Everybody’s fine from the two games in the last week. We’ve got Joe Williams back in the squad," Pearson said. "We want to try and get as many players fit and available to ensure we try and finish as well as we can.
“It’s been a disappointing couple of results that we’ve had but against good sides and I think our performance levels, in general, have been pretty good. There are things we still need to improve at, of course. We’ve hit a bit of a dead end in terms of taking opportunities but we’ve certainly been pretty creative so let’s see if we can change our fortunes against Rotherham.”
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