Santiago Arias (28 years old) has been hit by bad luck. The Colombian played this morning with his team in a match of the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying phase against Venezuela. Barely eight minutes had elapsed into the duel when, in an action with the Granada player, Darwin Machís, his foot was caught under the Venezuelan's body, producing a fatal turn and, with it, a serious injury. You are waiting for tests to determine the exact involvement of the joint, but the first scans speak of a fracture of the tibia and fibula, which would lead him to undergo surgery and have to being absent for about seven to eight months, practically saying goodbye to the season. It is possible that is something less important, such as a dislocation, which would reduce the recovery time to about three or four months, but it would still be a long-term casualty.
An injury is never a dish of good taste for an athlete and, less so if it is something serious, but in this case bad luck has been primed with Arias. And is that the coffee grower he had barely been with his new team, Bayer Leverkusen for three weeks. Germans he was hired on September 24 on loan from Atlético with a purchase option of 12 million that was mandatory in case he played 10 or more games with the Germans. So, it was quite likely that he would become a Leverkusen player permanently at the end of this season, unless an unforeseen event arises, as has been the case with this injury.
The Colombian came to Atlético in the summer of 2018 from Dutch PSV with the mission of being a guarantee replacement for Juanfran (Vrsaljko was transferred that course to Inter Milan). In his first year, he played 33 matches between all competitions, with 2,477 on the pitch. (11th of the squad that accumulated the most). In fact, played more minutes than the starting theorist, which stayed at 2335 '. However, that summer Juanfran decided to leave and the rojiblancos signed English international Kieran Trippier, which became indisputable for Simeone, when playing 2730 minutes for the 1394 of the coffee grower. In addition, Vrsaljko had been available since January after recovering from the serious injury he suffered at Inter and, therefore, there were three right sides and there was one left over.
At the conclusion of last season, Atlético decided to start one of them and the chosen one was Arias, since he was the one with the most options of finding a win-win solution. Finally, After sounding for teams from England (Everton, Wolverhampton and Newcastle), Italy (Rome, Naples and Inter) or Portugal (Benfica and Porto), their destination was Bayer Leverkusen, which assured him that he had a protagonist that, in the rojiblanco team, a priori, he would not have. In fact, In the only game he has been able to play with the Germans so far, he started and played all 90 minutes.