Injured, Rui Borges has picked Ibrahima Ba's Sporting stand-in | OneFootball

Eduardo Felicíssimo has been one of Sporting’s biggest surprises of pre-season. Originally a midfielder, the 19-year-old has impressed Rui Borges as a centre-back and is expected to remain with the first team during the opening weeks of the new season.

The player partnered Eduardo Quaresma in several warm-up matches and responded positively in the toughest tests, against Celtic, Strasbourg and Monaco. His performances have led the Sporting coach to view him as the main alternative to Ibrahima Ba.

The signing brought in from Famalicão is expected to remain unavailable for around four weeks, while he undergoes specific muscle-strengthening work around his right knee, after meniscus surgery in May. The centre-back will miss, at the very least, the matches against Estrela da Amadora, Vitória de Guimarães and Rio Ave.

Zeno Debast’s situation also reinforces the need to keep Eduardo Felicíssimo in the main squad. The Belgium international was sidelined for two months and is still training separately from the group after returning from the World Cup, so Rui Borges does not intend to send the youngster to Sporting’s B team just yet, where he is expected to get more minutes over the course of the season.

Felicíssimo’s performances come as part of a pre-season in which Sporting have also shown strong defensive signs. The Lisbon side have conceded only two goals, one in a training match against the reserve team and the other in the 4-1 win over Celtic, boosting confidence ahead of the start of the league campaign.

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