Athletic Club head coach Ernesto Valverde has on Friday spoken out on the wellbeing of midfield standout Oihan Sancet.
This comes after the in-form Spaniard was condemned to a spell on the sidelines earlier this week.
Sancet was for his part forced into a premature departure from Athletic Club’s 7-1 La Liga drubbing of Real Valladolid last weekend.
This came owing to what was later revealed by the Basque outfit to be a ‘a moderate muscle injury in the rectus femoris of his right leg’.
Speaking to the media in his latest pre-match press conference on Friday, it therefore came as little surprise when the subject of Sancet’s fitness, and when exactly the club’s star midfielder could return to the pitch, was put to Ernesto Valverde.
And the Spanish tactician went on to explain:
“In this case it comes after the problem of the very strong sprain that he had. When there are situations like this or knee problems, generally there are always small imbalances that can affect the muscles. You protect the ankle and the hamstring could have been overloaded. Let’s see if it’s not too much and we can recover soon.
Asked if Sancet could be cleared in time to face AS Roma in the Europa League next week, Valverde added:
“I don’t know. I would love for him to be there, but we are not going to take any risks with a player who could get injured again, then we would be acting wrongly. We will see if we can get him back, with guarantees.”
Conor Laird – GSFN
