BRIGHTON FORWARD KAORU MITOMA RULED OUT FOR REST OF THE SEASON WITH BACK INJURY
Brighton and Hove Albion superstar forward Kaoru Mitoma is feared to be out for the rest of the season with a back injury, manager Roberto De Zerbi announced on Tuesday.
“Bad, bad situation. I think we lost Mitoma until the end of the season,” said De Zerbi. “Yes, back injury. It’s important, it’s an important problem. I think 2, 3 months [for him to be back] but two or three months, it’s finished, the season.”
The Italian manager also gave an update on the rest of his squad, which is currently decimated with injuries. Stand out striker Evan Ferguson suffered an ankle injury this past weekend against Everton after landing awkwardly on his left ankle trying to defend the set piece that led to Jarrad Branthwaite’s goal. Ferguson, 19, is set to miss Brighton’s FA Cup match away at Molineux Stadium on Wednesday.
De Zerbi also confirmed that striker Danny Welbeck and defender Joel Veltman will also likely miss Wednesday’s fifth-round FA Cup tie with injuries of their own. Both players are, however, expected to be back for the Seagull’s trip to Fulham on Saturday. Brighton will also be without Billy Gilmour who is suspended for the game on Wednesday.
As for Mitoma, the 26-year-old is thought to have picked up the back injury in the run-up to Brighton’s FA Cup tie against Wolves, which forced him to miss his team’s 1-1 draw against Everton on Saturday.
De Zerbi had said prior to the game on Saturday that the Japanese international’s back injury would need further assessment. Mitoma has had nine goal contributions in all competitions for Brighton this year, scoring three times and assisting 6 times in 26 appearances for the club.
A breakout star from last year, Mitoma has endured an injury-plagued season, previously missing three matches in December and January due to an ankle injury, which delayed him joining the Japanese national team for the Asian Cup. The Hita-born winger ended up playing in both of Japan’s knockout stage matches, however, before returning to Brighton where he has since played just two Premier League games against Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United.
Asked if he was frustrated with all the recent injuries, De Zerbi remarked to the contrary, saying that he’s rather looking to transform the problems into opportunities. “I’m not, I’m not frustrated,” said De Zerbi. “It [injuries] can happen in football and the situation has never changed from September until now. We follow, work with enthusiasm, with pride and try to transform problems into opportunities. Like we’ve done until this moment.”
Brighton are also missing key players Joao Pedro (hamstring), Solly March (knee), Jack Hinshelwood (foot) and James Milner (muscle) through injury with all four players expected to be sidelined for more than a few weeks.
“For sure, if you ask me, ‘what is the target?’ The target was to compete with, not all players [in the squad], because we can’t have all players available,” De Zerbi went on. “Not so many [are available] but don’t worry because tomorrow, we fight to try to win the game at Fulham. Away the same, in Rome the same, in the Europa League.”
The Seagulls next take on 12th placed Fulham at Craven Cottage this weekend before travelling to Rome to take on AS Roma in their round-of-16 first leg on March 7th. Brighton is set for a tough run of fixtures during the most important part of the season, which will force De Zerbi’s men to quickly turn their attention to Fulham following their FA Cup game on Wednesday.
Brighton are in seventh-place in the Premier League standings, just 5 points behind sixth-placed Manchester United, who are fresh off a loss to this weekend’s opponents, Fulham. The London-based outfit is expected to be full of confidence coming off of their best result at Old Trafford since 2003 and should give Brighton a good challenge on Saturday.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: jamesboyes. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.