FC Barcelona will miss the services of its forward Alexis Sanchez for at least four weeks, coz he injured his knee in a match between his national Chile and Serbia on Wednesday. He got his injury after just twenty minutes of the game when he collided with Serbian Luka Milivojevic. He was then forced to leave the ground and taken over by Manchester United’s Angelo Henriquez, who played his first full on international and also scored in his international debut. It looked a minor knee injury initially, but later a scan revealed how he damaged his right ligament which would take around four weeks to heal. Next four weeks are too busy for Barcelona where it has to clash with Real Zaragoza, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Alaves, Athletic Bilbao, Betis, Levante, and Atletico Madrid, and if he could not recover as expected, it would be a huge setback for Barca. Barca issued a statement over its website where it mentioned, “Alexis Sanchez will be out for four weeks. Tests carried out on Thursday confirmed that the player had strained an external lateral ligament in his right leg.”
This is not the first time, he suffered an injury on his international duty, perhaps, he has a bad name of returning injured from international ties. Albeit, he just scored once in his 15 appearances this season, he had a significant role to play coz of his last season impressive performance. Moreover, despite a blow of losing an important teammate; there is good news too for Barca, coz its captain Carles Puyol is all set to return after his several weeks vocation coz of his elbow injury. He is expected to play in coming Barca clash with Real Zaragoza on Saturday evening. Barcelona has an unbeaten record in current La Liga season which it would surely like to maintain; hence it is looking forward for either of David Villa or Pedro as his substitute.
Catalan giants, who were already missing their best choice centre-back and captain Carles Puyol, a new injury, like this one, can be critical, if Puyool doesn’t return as expected. Moreover, two of the best Barcelona’s talents: defensive player: Gerard Pique and star midfielder: Andres Iniesta, were also not available for it. Interestingly, despite missing many topnotch strikers, Barca is leading the table with its 31 points, and as expected, it is a favorite to take home the title this year notwithstanding the fact that they are lacking their first rated players.