Nicolás Otamendi twisted his right knee to dispute the ball with striker Paulinho, in the second half of the derby the day before yesterday with Sporting, and lay for a few minutes on the pitch, clutching his knee and being assisted by Benfica’s clinicians.
The Argentine midfielder even left the field, but re-entered a short time later, with an expression of pain on his face; remained in play until the referee’s final whistle and apparently without limitations.
The way he twisted his knee – when he reached out to kick the ball before his opponent – caused apprehension on the red bench, but everything points to the fact that it was no more than that.
Otamendi’s case is not exactly alarming because of the injury, which doesn’t seem to be serious, but because of the Argentine’s importance in the team and will deserve extra care these days, before having the green light to work on the important Champions League game next time. Wednesday – Benfica need to win and hope Barcelona don’t win in Munich – at home to Dynamo Kiev.
As our newspaper anticipated, the Benfica SAD froze until January the intention to move forward with effective contacts to hire another central defender, but the scare will have served to underline what seems inevitable: in the reopening of the market next month, Benfica you will even have to try to hire a player for the position. Any injuries from Otamendi or Vertonghen would leave the team in a very delicate situation to form the defence.
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