No return date for Luís Guilherme, Quenda waits; more woes for Sporting | OneFootball

The remark made by Rui Borges after the match against Arsenal highlighted a problem that has been growing at Sporting: the lack of fresh options for the attacking flanks. With Pedro Gonçalves and Geny Catamo piling up minutes and physical wear and tear, the Sporting manager finds himself limited in his squad management at a decisive stage of the season. Prolonged absences and the still incomplete recovery of alternative options have reduced the coach’s room for manoeuvre.

Luís Guilherme is one of the most worrying cases. The Brazilian winger, who got injured in mid-March before the clash with Bodo/Glimt, was initially expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks. However, the issue turned out to be more delicate than expected and, at this point, there is still no set date for his return to competition. This uncertainty worsens the shortage of solutions out wide, forcing heavy use of the available options.

Geovany Quenda has also not yet been brought back into competition, despite having recovered from the fracture in his right foot. The young winger returned to Portugal at the end of March after four months in London, but is still waiting for clearance to play again. The situation is being closely monitored by Chelsea, who signed the player for 50 million euros and want to avoid any relapse before the end of the season. As such, his return is being handled cautiously at Sporting, with no fully defined timeline.

Given this context, Rui Borges has turned to alternative solutions such as Souleymane Faye or the young Flávio Gonçalves, although both are still in a phase of adaptation and competitive development. The coach himself admitted that using the Senegalese player could bring more pace, but would mean losing physical strength. These limitations keep the team reliant on the duo of Pote and Geny Catamo.

The signs of fatigue are clear. Pedro Gonçalves did not play any minutes during the last FIFA break due to physical limitations, while Geny has been playing with kinesio tape to ease strain-related discomfort. With 32 matches played by Pote and 47 by Geny, both are going through periods of heavy demand and are being managed with particular care, in an attempt to avoid further absences at a critical stage of the season.

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