Derby County Faces Crisis as Jacob Widell Zetterstrom Out for Two Months

Derby County’s season has taken another painful twist, with first-choice goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterstrom ruled out for up to two months with a knee injury.

The 28-year-old was hurt during the second half of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Birmingham City. For a moment it looked serious enough to end his afternoon there and then, as he went down and required treatment. Instead, he stayed on, played through the pain and finished the game.

The damage has now caught up with him.

Scans have confirmed a knee problem that not only sidelines him for Derby, but also forces him out of Sweden’s upcoming Nations League campaign. He has withdrawn from the squad for their four group fixtures against Romania, Poland and Bosnia-Herzegovina in late September and early October.

Derby do not expect him back until mid-November. That timetable means the Swede could miss as many as eight Championship matches for a side already stuck in the lower reaches of the table and creaking under the weight of injuries.

Saturday at St Andrew’s underlined the scale of the crisis. Before Widell Zetterstrom’s knock, Henrik Meister had already been carried off on a stretcher after a head injury, another key player added to a treatment room that is starting to look overcrowded.

They join a growing casualty list that includes Matt Clarke, Derry Murkin, Filip Bilbija, Rhian Brewster, Craig Forsyth and Lewis Travis. For a squad without great depth, it is a brutal run.

Losing Widell Zetterstrom stings in particular. Derby did well to keep hold of him in the summer after his performances at the World Cup drew strong transfer interest. He arrived as a statement signing; he quickly became a pillar of Paul Warne’s side.

Now that pillar is gone, at least for the next two months.

Josh Vickers, named on the bench in every game so far this season, is expected to step in. The 28-year-old will be asked to steady a listing ship, protect a defence missing experience and help drag a lowly Rams team through a critical stretch of the campaign.

Derby wanted this autumn to be about climbing the table. Instead, it may become about survival, resilience and whether a patched-up squad can hang on until its goalkeeper – and its spine – returns.