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After seeing pictures of Sandro's leg in a giant cast and reading way too much into Tom Huddlestone's possibly innocuous comments, we all hit the panic button and feared for the worst. And the club have finally confirmed we were right.
Sandro will miss the rest of the season after injuring both his Anterior Cruciate Ligament and his Lateral Meniscus. We've seen Sandro come back quickly from injury ahead of schedule before, but even Sandro's exceptional Wolverine-like healing powers probably won't be enough to get him out of this one.
These are both serious injuries that could keep Sandro out perhaps even through the beginning of next season. What's worse, he's already suffered injury to the meniscus in his other leg once before. For those of you unaware, the meniscus functions like a sort of shock absorber in the knee, taking pressure off the bones and the cartilage in the joint. Without the meniscus the forces from activities like running can damage the cartilage beneath.
Hopefully this doesn't turn into a Ledley King situation, as the last thing a bright young talent like Sandro needs is to end up a Cartilage Free Beast. Get well soon, big guy.
In the meantime, this may force Levy into getting busy in the transfer market (but not until 10:30 pm on January 31). Or more probably, RAF Captain Scott Parker steps once more into the breach and saves the day. As our own Edward F. likes remind us, there's no need to panic.