Ayoze’s injury-hit Villarreal season deepens with ninth absence and February doubt | OneFootball

Ayoze’s second season in yellow has stalled. After 19 LaLiga goals and the Zarra trophy last year, a training setback before Leverkusen leaves him at risk of missing February while he awaits a medical update.

According to El Periódico Mediterráneo, Marcelino will be without the Tenerife forward in the coming weeks. Leverkusen was his ninth absence of the campaign across LaLiga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.

He missed seven of the first eight league rounds, then returned in the seventh with minutes at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano. Before that he had been unused against Oviedo, Girona and Celta.

He then sat out Osasuna, Sevilla, Athletic Club and Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, and did not feature in the only Champions tie Villarreal have not lost, against Juventus.

He has 1,001 minutes, 540 in LaLiga across 13 games with two goals and three assists, 273 in the Champions with none, and 188 in three Copa ties for two goals and one assist.

A run of muscular problems, including the posterior fascia of the rectus femoris and some issues in national team camps, has dogged him over the past year and a half, so Villarreal have managed his returns carefully. When fit, his influence and finishing are evident.

Before Pamplona, the absentees are unchanged, Pau Cabanes, Willy Kambwala, Logan Costa, Juan Foyth and Ayoze. Alfon González will be assessed after arriving from Sevilla, while the only boost is Santiago Mouriño back from a Champions ban.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo