Steve
Ogrizovic, one of Coventry City’s most famous and most loyal players, is back in
action tomorrow night at the age of 42.
He has been selected to play in goal for the reserves against a star studded Chelsea
side at Highfield Road, scene of many of his greatest triumphs.
The match kicks off at 7pm and Coventry are expecting a big crowd drawn in by the
likely presence of some big name players in the Chelsea team and Ogrizovic’s
comeback.
He has been out of action since March when he began to suffer from a prolapsed disc in
his neck. He underwent surgery in April and has spent most of the time since building up
his fitness.
He is out of contract at present, but manager Gordon Strachan promised that if he could
regain his match fitness then he would be offered a new one year deal.
He is now sure to get that deal and a good performance tomorrow is likely to see him on
the first team substitutes’ bench against Everton at Goodison on Saturday.
If that happens then Coventry have no more need for the Italian Raffaele Nuzzo, on loan
from Inter Milan, whose only first team appearance was at Tranmere Rovers in the
Worthington Cup when the side lost 5-1.
Ogrizovic celebrated his 42nd birthday earlier this month, but has
consistently impressed with his punishing training schedules and clearly he has lost none
of his enthusiasm for his chosen sport.
The former Chesterfield, Liverpool and Shrewsbury goalkeeper, will not be content with
sitting on the subs bench either. He will be pushing No.1 Magnus Hedman all the way in a
bid to increase his Coventry appearance record higher than the current total of 587 games.
