Shackell has been one of the most consistent second tier defenders in recent seasons – not that Derby need him.
Two months after returning to the iPro Stadium and driving a wedge between Derby County fans, Steve McClaren has done his level best to keep the supporters singing and the doubters shuffling their shoes in embarrassment.
Never before in the club’s history had Derby recorded seven straight clean sheets at home. But, in McClaren’s second spell in charge, it seems anything is possible, including rising from relegation candidates to the play-offs in the blinking of an eye.
In fact, Derby are yet to concede a goal at the iPro since McClaren was parachuted in to replace the ejected Nigel Pearson, with Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Roterham, Norwich, Nottingham Forest and now Birmingham City failing to break through the well-fortified home ranks.
It certainly helps that McClaren has instilled a firm, familiar centre-back partnership of Alex Pearce and Richard Keogh, the former enjoying his longest uninterrupted run in the starting XI since arriving from Reading.
Yet, without an injury to experienced former Burnley defender Jason Shackell, Pearce may not have been given the opportunity to prove his worth. In fact, the form of Derby’s ever-improving partnership is the one positive of the tainted Pearson legacy – and even that was forced by coincidence.
Consequently, Shackell is yet make a single appearance in a Derby shirt since, instead sitting out fixtures on the substitute’s bench.
And, with Pearce and Keogh shattering a club record in his absence, what chance does the former Burnley captain have of wrestling his way back into the XI? After all, it ain’t broke so McClaren has very little to fix.
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