One of Europe’s most exciting young stars is set for a spell on the sidelines and it’s a blow for Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti. Arda Guler had been impressing in training since his arrival from Fenerbahce, but that has been put to a halt.
There was a big chase in the transfer market involving Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan for the signature of Guler but Los Blancos were able to convince the 18-year-old and his father that the Spanish capital was the best place for him.
His competitive debut will have to wait beyond the first game of the La Liga season, but here is all we know so far about Guler’s injury.
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There is always immediate fear when a player suffers a knee injury, but that is what has happened to Guler. The phrase ‘knee injury’ is very vague, but there is little other specific information on Guler right now.
He noticed the discomfort in his right knee not long before the pre-season friendly against AC Milan in the United States of America. He tried to continue training through the pain but had to miss the match against Manchester United as well.
The pain got worse last Friday and the decision was made to send him back to Madrid.
It’s a blow to a player who must have felt he was on a path to plenty of minutes early in the season for Real Madrid, given how highly rated he is and how well he had done in training since arriving from Turkey.
At this stage, Real Madrid have chosen not to put a specific time frame on Guler’s return from injury as they want to see how his recovery goes in the early weeks.
There is a very real chance Guler will need to undergo surgery, but as Dr Jose Gonzalez has explained to AS, it is best to wait and see if the injury can heal naturally for a player of Guler’s age.
“For an 18-year-old player, conservative treatment is always best. Now we need to rest for 15 or 20 days, after which, if possible, we can apply growth treatment and start working calmly, without forcing or exposing the knee to bending or impacts. And see how it evolves,” Gonzalez said.
“With conservative treatment, the standard would be to wait up to two months to see if the problem subsides; if it doesn’t, that’s when you have to consider surgery. And in the case of surgery, there are two scenarios: if what is done is to remove the damaged parts and leave the meniscus in good condition, the estimated absence would be between a month and a half and two months; if, on the other hand, it is decided to repair the meniscus, then the absence would be between three and four months. But it depends on each player, I have seen players who had meniscus surgery and were playing 20 days later.”
Either way, it seems Guler will be out of action at least for the first month or so of the 2023/24 La Liga season, by which time another player may have laid claim to his favoured attacking role within the team.
It was reported by Mario Cortegana at The Athletic that Guler completed the first part of his treatment programme really well and surgery will be ruled out if progress continues to be made.
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