No sooner was Eric Bailly back from a nasty knee ligament injury than he got crocked again against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Wednesday evening.
But the good news is that Jose Mourinho confirmed the injury is not to the same knee that kept Bailly out for over a month.
After the game, the Manchester United manager stated:
“It is not the same knee, it is the other one. It is the left knee. So he is not coming back to a previous injury,”
“Of course he has a problem with another dimension but he showed amazing character to try and try, and try until his limit.”
“I don’t know really what he has, but let us see and wait. He could resist for so long. I would say for about 75 minutes he could resist.
The mere fact that the player tried to run off the injury would suggest that this is not a serious injury. Conversely, knee problems are pretty much the worst that footballers can get and many a career has been blighted by ligament damage which never fully recovers.
Bailly was one of the stand out performers for Manchester United in the early months of the season before injury played its part.
But his absence has been serendipitous in as much as it has allowed the unlikely pairing of Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo to blossom.
This also bodes well for the new year when Bailly is expected to feature at The African Cup of Nations.
But, for now, we shall have to wait to determine the exact extent of his injury.
The 22-year-old Ivory Coast international (17 caps) has played 16 times for Manchester United since he made his Premier league bow in August.
Let’s see some of his best moments for United so far.