Graeme Souness said he had never experienced as many injury problems with any club he had been at in his entire career, as the situation he found himself in at St James' Park. And Roeder has revealed that United's pre-season training has been geared to cutting back on the amount of injuries they pick up in the new campaign.
Both Kieron Dyer and Emre were in Graeme Souness' starting line-up after they were supposed to have recovered from hamstring injuries. Emre only lasted 23 minutes, while Dyer came off seven minutes from the interval after they both aggravated their injuries.
But Dyer's history of problems continued, and he did not start another game until he grabbed an FA Cup winner against Southampton at St James' Park on February 18. Emre was out for two months and, like Dyer, he came back to score the winner, in the derby victory over Sunderland.
Roeder: "If I do not consider a player has a chance of getting through 90 minutes he will not play. It's as simple as that. Anything else is a recipe for disaster and really totally negligent. It's not something I have ever been involved in as a manager and I will personally be held responsible if it does happen.
"We are embarking on injury-prevention in our training this season, and so far it is working because one of the best things against Lillestrom last Saturday was that we came through the game without any injuries."