Giving a shock to Everton, midfielder Ross Barkley damaged his medial ligament during a training session on Monday that could oust him from the game for five long months. It is informed by the manager Roberto Martinez after knowing the depth of his injury through severe medical scans. Barkley has indeed been one of the most promising youngsters in the league side with a descent record. He played thirty matches for his side in the last season and Toffees won eighteen of them making him one of the luckiest too. He was also in the English national team played in just concluded Brazilian world cup and made his debut as substitute in the game with Italy. His absence from the upcoming league season is definitely a major blow for the whole team especially manager Martinez who was taking him as vital role player for upcoming domestic campaign. The another big trouble for the 22-year-old could be the fact that a long recovery period could as well out him from national duty specifically from upcoming Euro 2016 qualifiers against San Marino and Estonia scheduled to be happened in October.
Explaining the gravity of his injury, Martinez said, “With the swelling we don’t really know how bad the injury is. He had a scan but it was a bit difficult to determine the extent.” Further replied when asked how much time he would take to completely heal off it and he responded, “anything from seven weeks to four or five months.”
Barkley has been with Goodison Park side since last season when he made significant number of appearances and knocked the door of many big sides to let him in, but Martínez never entertained any offer for his dearest asset and offered him another four years contract extension at an undisclosed price tag last month along with other new entrants Gareth Barry and Muhamed Besic. Praising his caliber, former Spanish footballer said, “Ross Barkley is a phenomenal footballer and we’re going to miss him, there’s no doubt about it. He was very unfortunate to sustain the injury through an innocuous challenge in training and now he’s going to be out for a long, long time.
“The squad should be big enough to be able to cope with losing a player, but it’s a disappointing moment when Ross Barkley was going to have a really big start to the season.”