International break: A quick look to the injury list

by Guilherme Neto

We’ve just gone through another international break, where most of the national teams clashed in either European qualifiers or meaningless friendlies. Almost every national side had the opportunity to play in 2 different fixtures over the last days and while it may indeed represent a great opportunity for some players to show off what they’re capable of in international stages, it’s undeniable that it also poses a big risk for players to pick up injuries…

We’ll be looking into a shortlist of players’ names that have been unfortunate enough to get injured while playing for their nations over the last few days and it won’t be hard to conclude that one of the most affected clubs was by far Manchester United…

#1: Daley Blind

The Dutch versatile player picked up a knee injury in Netherlands 6-0 win over Latvia and will probably be sidelined for at least a few weeks. Even though the injury isn’t as serious as some people may have initially predicted, it will still keep him off the clash against Arsenal scheduled for this upcoming weekend.

#2: Luka Modric

He was being one of Real Madrid‘s most in-form players this season and together with Toni Kroos, they the foundations of most of the Merengues‘s build-up plays. Modric has a tremendous ease in orchestrating the pace and attacking strategies of every teams where he plays at and Real Madrid will surely miss his contribute in the next few months. As a way to compensate the club for its loss, FIFA is said to be going to have to pay close to 2 million US dollars to Real Madrid.

#3: Angel Di María

The former Real Madrid winger signed for Manchester United last summer, but it was playing for Argentina earlier this week that he ended up getting himself injured for the first time since he landed in England. The injury shouldn’t be serious, but it’s still funny to note that it all happened in a clash with the Portuguese winger Nani, currently loaned by Manchester United to Sporting CP.

#4: Philipp Lahm

Even though the Bayern Munich captain didn’t exactly get injured whilst playing or training for the German National Team (he already retired from the international stages), he was unlucky to the point of fracturing his ankle in a training session in Munich. At the age of 31, the talented full-back and midfielder will certainly be out of action for the next months.

#5: De Gea

As if losing Blind and Di María wasn’t bad enough already, Manchester United suffered another blow when they received the news that De Gea was also going through several fitness problems. The Spanish goalkeeper has dislocated a finger in a fixture from last week against Belarus and already missed his chance to play in this week’s clash between Spain and Germany.

Sources: theguardian.com / squawka.com