From the Physio – Sergio Aguero

Sergio Aguero’s calf injury in the 6-3 win over Arsenal has served up a potential major setback for thousands of Fantasy managers. With Manuel Pellegrini offering us little insight into the severity of the injury and a scan imminent, we can only wait on news from the Etihad. However, resident Fantasy Football Scout physio, Facer, has made a timely return to offer his early view. Analysing the incident involved and Aguero’s reaction and movement, here’s Facer’s detailed report and his take on the likely prognosis.

The incident occurred barely a minute into the second half and gives a clear indication of the mechanism of injury. Playing a one-two with David Silva, Sergio Aguero receives the ball and with one touch plays it back into the path of Silva. Almost immediately Aguero starts to limp and, several seconds later, in an attempt to take the pressure from the injury, falls on to his back. At first glance the incident looked fairly innocuous, but with closer inspection, we see that the former Atletico man didn’t quite have the time to position himself correctly and improvises a one-touch pass into Silva’s run with a subtly excessive rotation at the right hip. This is significant because the contracting Gluteal muscles produce a rotatory force at the hip and, with the studs of Aguero’s right boot planted firmly in the ground, severely restricting movement at the hip and ankles, this force had nowhere to go, resulting in a tear to one of the calf muscles.

As Aguero is lying on the ground his demeanour is interesting. He does not appear to be in a great deal of pain and he is not reaching for the injury. In terms of severity, these are positive signs. Suffering a severe calf strain is like being shot in the back of the leg and Aguero would have hit the ground immediately and would need to have been stretchered off. We then see the Argentine hobble from the field. It is worth noting that, although exhibiting severely restricted movement at the right ankle, Aguero is able to partially weight bear on the injured limb, giving us a further clue as to the severity and likely duration of any absence. Similarly, as Aguero is led from the field, we can observe him palpating the back of his calf towards the ‘belly’ of the Gastrocnemius, suggesting a tear to the meat of the muscle rather than attachments, which heals more quickly. In summary, I would suggest that Aguero has suffered a grade 1-2 calf strain, which would see him sidelined for a minimum of 10 days, but more likely 2-3 weeks. Sadly for his owners, that would see Aguero miss at least the next three league outings.

A Scout Disclaimer: While Facer offers an expert’s view of such injuries, with just a remote assessment to go on, the opinions expressed here should not be taken as fact or acted on with any degree of certainty.