After being forced off just thirty minutes into our League Cup quarterfinal win over Newcastle United on Tuesday, Enzo Fernández has now been ruled out of our match against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.
Mauricio Pochettino confirmed the news in the off-camera portion of his pre-match press conference, adding that we hope to have him back in quick order.
“Enzo is going to be out of the game against Wolverhampton. We are going to see if he can be involved again as soon as possible.
“You already have the information that it was a hernia and he also didn’t feel well. We are going to give treatment with the doctor.
“For me, it is not going to be a problem. I think he is going to be as soon as possible again with the group.”
-Mauricio Pochettino; source: Evening Standard
While I want to share in Poch’s optimism, we haven’t exactly had the best of luck with injuries over the past few years. And the information about the sports hernia (i.e. “pubalgia”) didn’t come from the club either but rather from reports in Argentina, which could be a good (i.e. it really is not a big deal) or bad (i.e. we’re trying to make it go away by ignoring it). Sports hernias don’t tend to just go away though, and usually need some medical intervention eventually, so... yeah. (And when left untreated will often affect performance levels, which is just as bad.)
Conor Gallagher and Moisés Caicedo have done a good job in the pivot lately, but we’ll miss the incisiveness and control that Enzo can provide. The 22-year-old has been practically ever-preset since joining in January, and so he could certainly use a bit of rest, but hopefully he indeed won’t be out for too long.
Enzo asked for rest at the beginning of the year. He’s clearly not been right for several months. Hopefully we have a proper treatment plan for the hernia otherwise it may require surgery and 9-12 weeks out. Once again medical team kicking can down road hurting us down the line https://t.co/DsEGhkTS4G
— Ollie Glanvill (@OllieGlanvill) December 22, 2023