One of the Swans brightest players has done enough damage to his knee to see him out of contention until at least the end of November this year.
Eom Ji-Sung injured his knee after fifty one minutes of the game against Jordan in Amman on Tuesday afternoon. The injury is a medial collateral ligament damage which affects one of the more significant parts of the knee. It is described as - ‘An MCL injury can be very painful and is caused by a valgus stress to a slightly bent knee, often when landing, bending or on high impact. It may be difficult to apply pressure on the injured leg for at least a few days. It can be caused by a direct blow to the lateral side of the knee’
The injury can keep a player out for between six weeks and two months. The extra stipulated time for a full recovery, and then being able to place stress on the injury before being able to train. We have been told it is a grade 2 injury, possibly grade 1, so that’s good news. It won’t be until at least seven days before a decision can be made for him to have an arthroscopy (keyhole surgery) Non invasive methods of treatment are preferred, However for an elite athlete the criteria is somewhat different, and of course there is the return to match fitness. We have also been told that there has to be consideration of over compensating due to the injury that can cause other issues. Although a different type of injury, Josh Ginnelly has had several set backs on his long road to recovery. Rehabilitation cannot be hurried.
It always looked like an MCL injury had been sustained, we are told, and the Korean Football Association were aware of this potential diagnosis from the off. When the tibial collateral ligament is damaged other complications can arise during recovery. However, the MRI scan doesn’t indicate a more serious grade to the injury. Fortunately the posterior cruciate ligament isn’t damaged.
We aim to bring you the best researched news on Swansea City stories, and thank our contacts in South Korea who have taken the time out to personally speak to us over the past two days and explain in detail the situation.
The FIFA Club Protection Programme for players like Eom covers this detail. As Eom was under the control of the Korean FA, and his injury or the event stops him playing for twenty eight consecutive days, which is more than likely - clubs are compensated based on the player’s fixed salary. This runs for a maximum of 365 days, calculated on a daily pro-rata basis up to a maximum of EUR 7.5m per injury. Importantly, compensation is not payable for the first 28 days of the injury.
That’s the story this morning folks, not good news but it could have been a lot worse.