Well, this isn’t good at all. We’re not used to seeing Luis Suarez on crutches, but after picking up a suspected knee injury in the last match of the season that no one on the planet — bar the Uruguay medical team — knew about, the Liverpool striker now faces a race to be fit for the World Cup after undergoing surgery.
While it would be a massive loss not to see the 31-goal man grace the biggest stage on the planet, Reds fans are obviously a bit worried about what the ramifications of the 27-year olds injury will be beyond this summers tournament in Brazil. While there’s suggestions that he could be fit in up to three weeks time, and miss only La Celeste’s opening match with Costa Rica on June 14th, the normal turn around for a surgery of this calibre is six weeks — a time frame that puts his participation in major doubt.
Reports suggest that Suarez damaged his lateral meniscus after participation in a training session with a slight niggle, though the Uruguayan medical team suspect that he initially picked up the injury in Liverpool’s last match of the season against Newcastle United. Magpies defender Paul Dummett, who was handed a straight red card after upending the striker during the second half of the game, received online death threats after a section of fans pointed to his tackle as the cause of the strikers woes.
It sounds a bit like the national side is trying to brush off any suggestions of liability on their part, instead placing the root cause of the incident before the striker reported for international duty; whether this will stifle the likelihood of any claims by the Reds for future matches missed remains to be seen. The surgery, which lasted about a half hour, was reportedly successful, though the chances of Suarez being back to full fitness — or even all that effective — before the Group Stage is over is a pipe dream at best.
The chances of the injury recurring and the longer term ramifications of it if the proper resting period isn’t observed will be the major concerns for Liverpool fans — and of, course the club and owners — in the coming weeks. It’s safe to say that there will be hell to pay if our Luis comes back crocked…
