Oxford United’s Will Vaulks Sees International Break as Beneficial Amid Injury Concerns

Oxford United midfielder Will Vaulks has addressed the club’s recent 1-0 loss to Watford and the team’s current situation. Vaulks stated that the upcoming international break is arriving at a “good time” for the squad, attributing this to the extensive list of injured players. Among those currently unavailable, midfielder Louie Sibley is expected to be out for a minimum of four weeks due to an ankle injury. Centre-back Ben Nelson, winger Siriki Dembele, and midfielder Cameron Brannagan are also among seven other players who are sidelined. Speaking on BBC Radio Oxford’s The Dub podcast, Vaulks commented, “We don’t want to make excuses but we have got a lot of top players in the team out at the moment,” He continued, “When they come back, that will benefit the group. I think the break comes at a good time and we’ll look at the next load of fixtures and try and take as many points as we can, which is what we always try and do.” The team, managed by Des Buckingham, currently occupies 16th place in the Championship standings after suffering a narrow 1-0 loss to Watford at Vicarage Road on Friday night. Despite the recent defeat, Vaulks emphasized that Oxford United “have to take the positives from games” and simultaneously “learn from the things that haven’t been so good.” He further elaborated, “Sunderland, we got outclassed and outperformed and we didn’t turn up the way we would expect to. Other than that, we can only look at games and say we should’ve had more points. But I don’t want to say that too often because we need to switch that around.” Vaulks also reflected on the season’s beginning, stating, “The start of the season, we started really well but I don’t think we’ve come away from those performances. I think teams maybe they just didn’t respect as much at the start – and also teams take a while to get going.”