Martim Fernandes backed by FC Porto, races to be fit for Nottingham | OneFootball

It is not as worrying as FC Porto’s officials had initially feared, but Martim Fernandes will have to stop for a few days and is certain to miss the trip to Estoril, while also facing a serious risk of not recovering in time for the European decider in Nottingham.

The full-back was injured in the first half of Thursday’s match — in a bizarre incident in which he ended up being struck by an opponent (Ndoye), after the latter had been fouled by Gabri Veiga — and left the pitch in a lot of pain, being replaced by Alberto Costa.

The defender’s unfortunate night, just minutes after scoring one of the strangest own goals in the history of the Estádio do Dragão, ended up with a major scare. The MRI scan carried out confirmed “only” a moderate sprain to his right ankle, ruling out the scenario of ligament damage that Francesco Farioli had feared.

“He will have tests and we will see more, it looks like something involving the ligaments. We have to see. He will definitely be out for Sunday’s game. We’ll see if we can get him back for next Thursday’s match,” the Porto coach told TNT Sports.

Although it did not significantly affect the ligaments, the injury is still expected to keep Martim Fernandes out in England, although a recovery has not yet been ruled out. That is what the full-back will focus on over the next few days.

Martim’s unavailability for the game against Estoril and, most likely, also for the clash in Nottingham, creates an additional problem for Francesco Farioli at a stage of the season when managing the squad’s physical condition has been a concern. For the right side of the defence, Alberto Costa remains, although there are other tested solutions, such as Pablo Rosario and Pepê.

The issue is that moving one of those players would force him to cover possible gaps further forward. In Amoreira, the most likely scenario is for Alberto to play, but in England the coach may be forced to improvise if he does not want to risk overloading the former Juventus player.

Martim’s injury, however, could also extend the problem to the left, an area where he has often been used as a solution. Zaidu has been the regular choice since the clássico against Benfica on 8 March, the last game in which Moura featured. To manage the Nigerian’s physical condition, Farioli has only two options: “recover” the Portuguese full-back, who is going through a difficult spell, or move Kiwior back.

Support for the full-back from the pitch to Olival

Going back to Martim, Thursday night could hardly have gone any worse. After 13 minutes, to make his bad luck even worse, he scored an own goal, allowing Nottingham to equalise, and six minutes later he suffered the injury already mentioned. Still on the pitch, several teammates, such as Fofana and Bednarek, tried to lift the defender after the mistake.

At the end of the match, Portal dos Dragões understands that the same scene was repeated in the dressing room, with the “Porto family” supporting their teammate and trying to help him quickly forget the moment. The same happened again yesterday morning at Olival, where Martim began treatment on the injury.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.