MADRID, 22 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Gavi’s knee injury with the Spanish team is the most serious case of a list of up to seven LaLiga EA Sports footballers who have fallen during the last international break, affected by the well-known ‘FIFA virus’, much more malignant than expected for FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Mallorca and Villarreal, clubs that will suffer from it in the coming months.
The nine-day national team break has wreaked havoc on the Spanish First Division, which has suffered the virulence of a ‘FIFA virus’ that will force many players to stop given the relevance of their injuries, some of them even saying goodbye to 2023. The clearest and most painful case is that of Gavi, who misses the entire season and, except for an unlikely shortening of the planned 8 months of recovery, the Euro Cup and the Olympic Games next summer.
But this is not the only bad news in ‘Can Barça’, since, although less serious, German goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen is also a doubt for the return of LaLiga EA Sports. The FC Barcelona goalkeeper ended his training camp with ‘Die Mannschaft’ on Friday due to severe back pain. Absent in the international duels against Turkey and Austria, the goalkeeper continued his recovery in Barcelona, with the match against Rayo Vallecano this Saturday.
Real Madrid has not been spared from this ‘FIFA virus’ either, which is affected even more by the plague of injuries it accumulated before this break. And the injuries to Brazilian Vinícius Júnior and Frenchman Eduardo Camavinga ended up exhausting Carlo Ancelotti’s options to choose his eleven, forced to draw on the white youth squad to continue with the rotation policy between now and the end of the year.
The Madrid striker suffered a tear in his femoral biceps affecting the distal tendon of his left leg on Thursday during the first half of the match between Colombia and Brazil in the South American Qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
A physical problem that will keep him away from the playing fields for two and a half months, according to reports, a time out similar to that which the French midfielder will have to face due to a tear in the external lateral ligament in his right knee, due to a chance blow in a training session with France on Wednesday with PSG player Ousmane Dembélé, and which, like for ‘Vini’, jeopardizes his participation in the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia from January 10 to 14, 2024.
Real Sociedad will also not be able to count on one of its great stars and fundamental pillar, after Mikel Oyarzabal’s injury. The ‘txuri urdin’ attacker left the Spanish team’s camp due to a muscle problem in his left femoral biceps just before half-time of Cyprus-Spain last Thursday. This could keep him in dry dock for about four weeks and leave him without playing until 2024.
Even more significant is the loss of Vedat Muriqi for Mallorca, who will receive the Kosovar with a break in his left calf caused in the Kosovo-Israel qualifier for the Euro Cup, which also forced the postponement of a Mallorca-Cádiz in LaLiga so that the The vermilion team could count on the striker, now injured and having problems finishing 2023 playing. And at Villarreal, the Algerian central defender Aissa Mandi will return with an ankle injury due to an action in Algeria-Mozambique.
A break whose physical consequences also go beyond the borders of LaLiga. And Manchester City, which already had the injured Nunes, Aké, Ederson and Kovacic, could lose the lethal Erling Haaland. The striker received a severe blow to his foot and had to leave Norway’s training camp, with the duel against Liverpool this weekend. Other cases are those of the Manchester United goalkeeper André Onana, or the French PSG midfielder Warren Zaïre-Emery.
A cataract of injuries, some of them serious and with very long recovery times, which once again puts the international windows in focus – three in the last three months of competition – within club seasons already saturated with matches.