The fears that Feyenoord coach Arne Slot expressed on Saturday evening after the 4-0 victory in the Eredivisie match against Vitesse appear to be correct. The Rotterdam team announced on Tuesday morning that winger (19) suffered a muscle injury against the Arnhem team that will keep the Newcastle United loanee sidelined for a number of weeks.
Feyenoord easily won against the Arnhem team in their own Kuip, but afterwards the concerns were mainly about two players: top scorer Santiago Giménez and Minteh. Both had to be substituted in the second half due to a nasty injury. Immediately after the match, Slot took away the worst concerns about Giménez: “I have good hope that he will be there on Wednesday.” In the same interview with ESPN he was already less optimistic about Minteh’s situation: “He received less positive assessments from the medical staff,” said the coach.
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Three days later his fears turned out to be true. “Yankuba Minteh will not be able to play for several weeks,” Feyenoord wrote on the club website late Tuesday morning. This means that the Gambian will normally have to miss the Champions League match against SS Lazio next Wednesday, as well as the Eredivisie matches against FC Twente (Sunday, October 29) and RKC Waalwijk (Saturday, November 4). Whether he has recovered for the return in Rome (November 7) or the top match against AZ (November 12) remains to be seen.
Ivanusec
While the concerns about Minteh appear to be justified, Slot received good news this week about another player who had been in the rag-tag basket for some time. Luka Ivanusec can make his first playing minutes since September 19 against Lazio on Wednesday. That day, the Croat dropped out in the 2-0 Champions League match against Scottish champions Celtic.
