Paul Lambert has insisted the club’s mounting injury list was not the reason for fitness coach Jim Henry’s departure.
The 68-year-old left the Blues at the start of the week following two years in Suffolk, with the club saying his exit was for personal reasons and that Henry will still be working for the club in a consultancy role from his home in Scotland.
The departure of Henry, who was officially the club’s head of athletic performance and sports science, comes at a time when the club have a lengthy injury list, but Lambert insisted that wasn’t a factor in the former judo champion’s exit.
Asked how Henry will be used, now he’s in a consultancy role, Lambert said: “I’m big enough and old enough now to look after ourselves.
“Jim is going to go and do his own thing. We will crack on here the best we can.
“The injury situation, if you look at clubs like Liverpool where Jurgen (Klopp) has all the best technology in the world, is incredible because of the pandemic. It doesn’t matter if you have the best surgeons and the best medical team.
“What has happened in the last six or seven months with the pandemic has been unprecedented and is something that will hopefully never be repeated.”
Asked what is going to be done in terms of a replacement for Henry, Lambert said: “We need to look at that because it’s an important role.
“There has been so much going on with that at the minute that we need to get our heads together and see where we’re going.
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“We need to look at what’s happened. We have a few lads mucking in with that at the minute and that’s what you have to do.
“When you lose any member of staff it’s hard. But football is unpredictable.”
News of Henry’s departure is thought to have been met with surprise by many at the club, given how highly he has been regarded and is understood to have followed a number of disagreements between members of the club’s coaching staff in recent weeks.
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