Swansea City suffer big double blow – It’s not what Alan Sheehan needs ahead of Middlesbrough | OneFootball

The Swans have suffered injuries to both Ben Cabango and Ricardo Santos in pre-season

Swansea City have been dealt with a concerning double injury blow ahead of the upcoming 2025/26 Championship season, with both Ben Cabango and summer signing Ricardo Santos suffering issues in pre-season.

The Swans had made an effort to bolster the defensive ranks this summer, with Santos and Cameron Burgess being two of seven new arrivals to South Wales.

But now Alan Sheehan has a massive headache to deal with, as Cabango and Santos’ injury problems have left the club light at the back ahead of their Championship opener with Middlesbrough, which gets underway in just over two weeks.

Swansea were left with a gaping hole at the back at the beginning of the summer after the club lost Harry Darling to Norwich City, while Hannes Delcroix returned to Burnley and Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton and Kristian Pedersen were all released.

Now, Swansea will have to develop a plan of how to tackle this challenging situation, so soon before their second-tier season kicks off.

Ben Cabango and Ricardo Santos develop defensive injury woes for Swansea City

As per a report by the BBC, Swansea City will have to assess both Ben Cabango and Ricardo Santos after the pair suffered injury complaints in pre-season.

Club captain Cabango missed both their friendly matches against Stevenage and Cheltenham Town this week after picking up a problem during their pre-season camp.

Meanwhile, summer arrival Santos was forced off in the first half against Cheltenham, with the club needing to check on the extent of the injury.

Academy product Filip Lissah is also nursing an ankle problem during pre-season, which means Swansea only have Cameron Burgess as a recognised central defensive option leading up to their clash against Boro, so the South Wales-based outfit will be hoping that Cabango and Santos will only be unavailable for a short period of time.

Sheehan said: “Ben (Cabango) just felt something.

“We want to look further into that without risking him for the next few days.

On Santos, Sheehan added: “He landed really funnily. We will have to assess that and see how he is.

“(There have been) quite a few little things really that are freakish and unfortunate at the moment.

“It’s not about risking anybody at the moment, so get him off and assess him straight away.”

Swansea City will be deeply concerned about defensive options ahead of Middlesbrough opener

It’s safe to say that this is far from ideal preparation for Alan Sheehan and the Swansea City squad, who are in danger of fielding a very weak and disjointed backline against Middlesbrough, should Ben Cabango and Ricardo Santos be ruled out for longer than two weeks.

A lot of the Swans’ planning will be centred around the outcome of their assessments, and if they are on the bad side, then the club will have to scamper to find some more central defensive additions in order to have confidence that they can shut out Boro on the opening day.

The most sensible option would be to utilise the free agent or loan market, with the Swans then having a healthy number of central defensive options over the course of a 46-game season to rotate between when Cabango and Santos eventually return.