As first feared at Derby on Saturday Martin Rowlands will miss at least nine months of action after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in the first half at Pride Park.
Rowlands was stretchered from the field after 11 minutes of the match at Derby on Saturday and it was clear to everybody there that the injury was a serious one. After going for a scan today the worst possible news has been confirmed – Rowlands has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and, pending surgery on Wednesday, he is expected to be out for the best part of nine months taking him ten games or so into next season.
This is heartbreaking news for Rowlands and a massive blow to the team. The skipper had long been troubled by injuries – arriving at QPR with a broken leg in the first place and then struggling with a persistent calf injury for 18 months following Rangers’ promotion to this division in 2004. Just recently though he has managed to get himself consistently fit and revelled in a central midfield role under Luigi De Canio last season when he won the QPR Player of the Year award for the second time in his career.
Rowlands is the longest serving member of the QPR playing staff and current club captain.
Manger Paulo Sousa said: “Martin is our captain and our leader, he epitomises everything we are about. We have lost him as a player but we will not lose him as a personality because he is a huge character around the club and I will continue to involve him as much as possible. He is a player we all hold in extremely high regard and we will be doing everything we can to get him back to full fitness as soon as possible.”
Physio Paul Hunter told the club’s official website: “Unfortunately our worst fears have been confirmed. Martin has seen a specialist today and he will be back in hospital for surgery on Wednesday afternoon. Obviously we are all desperately disappointed but being the positive character and strong man that he is we are confident Martin will bounce back from this set back and approach his rehabilitation in a positive manner.”
QPR are now without Rowlands and Akos Buzsaky for the remainder of this season and are still some weeks off seeing Rowan Vine make his first appearance of the season after his broken leg. If you could pick three players from the Rangers squad to be out through injury they would be the last three choices for many supporters. There is some light at the end of the tunnel for Vine though who is now back in light training though no definite return date has been set for him.