Samir Nasri, City’s resurgent playmaker has sustained knee ligament damage as a result of being hacked down by Newcastle defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa on Tyneside…
The 26 year old Manchester and France midfielder confirmed following examinations carried out at The Bridgewater Hospital today that he suffered ‘partial rupture of the internal ligament and an effusion of the cruciate ligament’ to his left knee in the closing stages of Sunday’s win at the theatre of hate that St James’ Park had become following the home side having had a goal disallowed in the first half.
City, despite now boasting the strongest away record across the last 5 rounds of Premier League fixtures were statistically the most fouled top flight side in England at the weekend copping for the 17 registered fouls that goaded into terror referee Mike Jones had the bottle to call. Yanga-Mbiwa, no stranger to being sent off when previously playing for Montpellier served up a cowardly tackle from behind that prompted his manager, foul mouthed touchline ranter Alan Pardew to immediately withdraw him, having seen his side dance to his plot losing tune with abandon.
Nasri tweeted: ‘Thank you everyone for your kind words and overwhelming support, I suppose it’s kind of good news that I will be out around 8 weeks.’
Knee ligament injuries invariably go one way or the other. They either heal rapidly or initial prognoses become revised beyond an initial estimate of a return to action. It is highly unlikely that given his track record of bringing back players from injury with absolute caution that Manuel Pellegrini will take any risks with Nasri. It could be April before Le Petit Prince de Marseille struts his stuff at The Etihad again, yet that would be more than something to be thankful for such was the severity of Yanga-Mbiwa’s tackle.
Beyond that, Nasri’s relentless workrate in helping propel City upwards and onwards on four fronts this season already merits inclusion in the French World Cup squad and at the very least he is not ruled out of the opportunity to represent his country in Brazil.
The English game has seen the brilliant best of Nasri in this campaign and the loss of his experience, nous and savvy earned at the highest level for games against the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona, Spurs and the Stretfords in the coming weeks will be keenly felt by a City squad that has benefitted from 28 Nasri showings to date and 4 goals. You’d be hard pressed to identify a poor performance. The more glaring statistic is that he has created 47 scoring opportunities for his teammates and made 27 tackles compared to 17 in the whole of the previous campaign.
Nasri’s speed of thought and quicksilver creativity has returned with style under The Engineer’s guidance and into the bargain he’s made a mockery of a previously stated belief that himself and David Silva could not play together in the same team. With the two creators working in tandem City have been devastating this season.
What a pity that they won’t get the opportunity to take on Barcelona together next month in what will be the European showpiece of the season to date.
Bon retablissement Samy.
UPCOMING DATES FOR YOUR FILOFAX:
all times East Manchester GMT
We 15Jan 19h45 Blackburn, The Etihad, FAC3R
Sa 18Jan 15h00 Cardiff City, The Etihad, PL
Tu 21Jan 19h45 West Ham United, Upton Park, LCSF2
Sa/Su 25/26 Jan TBC Watford or Bristol City, The Etihad, FAC4
We 29Jan 19h45 Tottenham Hotspur, White Hart Lane, PL
Mo 03Feb 2014 20h00 Chelsea, The Etihad, PL
Sa 08Feb 15h00 Norwich City, Carrow Road, PL
We 12Feb 19h45 Sunderland, The Etihad, PL
Tu 18Feb 19h45 FC Barcelona, CL
Sa 22Feb 15h00 Stoke City, The Etihad PL
Sa 01Mar 15h00 The Stretfords, the swamp, PL
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