I’ve never heard of a “muscle warning”, but whatever it may be, Wesley Fofana says that’s exactly what happened to him in Sunday’s game against Aston Villa, when he was forced off on the hour mark after going down with a hamstring problem.
So I guess it’s not an injury but a warning that an injury is about to occur? Sounds like an injury either way to me!
Head coach Enzo Maresca struck a similarly pessimistic note after the game when talking about it, expecting some bad news and an extended recovery.
“Unfortunately it is bad news. A hamstring problem. These kind of things usually require three, four, five weeks. In this moment, we lose him for 10 or 12 games. In the way he was playing, it’s a big loss for us but we have more players and we can find a solution.”
“It’s a big loss, it’s a big loss. He is doing fantastic but it is normal when you play this amount of games. Fortunately it was his first injury of the season but we will find a solution.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
Fofana certainly didn’t share in his manager’s pessimism, putting a positive spin on things in an Instagram post a bit later. Granted, after missing an entire season, a few weeks out probably seems like nothing, so perhaps it’s just a question of perspective.
“A slight muscle warning, as often happens after long injuries, nothing serious, the body is adjusting. We’ll come back stronger, as always. Trust your guy!”
-Wesley Fofana; source: Instagram
Fofana has been nearly ever present in our Premier League lineups, starting every game other than the one he was suspended for, and completing all but one of those full-90s before yesterday.
But we’ve also been very careful with him, leaving him off our Conference League squad, not naming him in any League Cup match, and also essentially holding him out of international duty. Alas, all that careful workload management still didn’t prevent this “warning”. Hopefully it is indeed “nothing serious”.
Benoît Badiashile looks to be next man up in the depth chart to partner Levi Colwill in Wes’s absence. Get well soon!