PEP Clotet is satisfied Oxford United are doing all they can to minimise injuries after instructing his staff to review their procedures.

The treatment room has been busy all season, with Charlie Raglan and Ivo Pekalski picking up serious problems in pre-season.

And while the loss of Rob Hall and Curtis Nelson last week dealt a heavy blow to the squad, it was overshadowed this week by Christian Ribeiro’s enforced retirement.

Collectively it is a significant loss and prompts a question of whether they are connected in some way.

But the irony is the latest problems came after Clotet’s decision to look into United’s approach, which revealed a department in good shape.

He said: “I asked the medical team to do an investigation on anything we could do to prevent injuries.

“They were already good, we had an injury prevention programme in place the club had been working on for a few years.

“I just told them to reflect on it and see if we can make it any better.

“They had this process a month ago and they came up with some good conclusions – actually it just highlighted the good job they were doing.”

Fitness issues earlier in their careers may have been a contributory factor, but bad luck has also played its part in an occupation where injuries are a fact of life.

While managers can sometimes be accused of rushing players back too quickly, Clotet’s instinct is for caution.

“I’m the one who will hold back on injuries,” he said.

“I’ve been very clear on that from the beginning and that’s why I’m very conservative when it comes to recovery.”

He added: “We work hard to reduce the risk, but it is always there.

“If it happens you have to make sure they get the proper support to get through the bad moment and when they recover, make sure they are not rushed back on to the pitch.

“They have to be ready 100 per cent and be able to prove it consistently in training.

“I don’t want setbacks, because it’s very difficult then to recover properly.

“Sometimes you can do that, but injuries will still happen.”

With Raglan, Gino van Kessel and Agon Mehmeti closing in on the end of their recoveries, United’s squad should begin to grow stronger shortly.

But for Clotet, the key to dealing with injuries is no different from any other problem.

He said: “We have faced two big unlucky things this season – we’ve had a few injuries in a difficult moment for us and obviously that came at a time we made a few individual mistakes.

“In the long-run it doesn’t matter, because it will happen to every team over the course of the season.

“The thing is to get through it with a lot of unity.”