Injury Worries for Croatia

April 28, 2009

Niko Kranjcar has acquired a painful injury to his left ankle. During Portsmouth’s 1-0 win over Bolton April 18th, Niko was stretchered off the pitch after landing awkwardly on his ankle. After the match, it looked as though the injury was “not as bad as feared”, as Niko was able to put pressure on it in the dressing room and walk around a bit. Recent scans have revealed that it is much worse than previously thought and he will be out of action for the coming months. A medical report from the club’s head physio, Gary Sadler, on the official website read;

“A scan on the Monday after the Bolton game revealed soft tissue damage. On Friday, we took Niko to see our foot and ankle specialist, James Calder, who operated on his ankle earlier in the season.

“There were certain areas of the MRI scan which did not match up with the clinical findings we had made throughout the week. So Niko went for a CT scan to investigate the possibility of bone-related damage. The scan revealed that Niko had pulled a little bit of bone away in the back of his ankle.”

So, Niko is hoping to return in time for pre-season training in early July, but it may take a bit longer before the midfielder is fully-fit. Which means that he will not be available to Slaven Bilic for their next World Cup qualifying match when Croatia play Ukraine in June. So far, Niko has been an important part in his country’s qualifying campaign and will be missed for their Ukraine visit.

Jill Guthrie

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