Real Madrid have confirmed that summer signing Arda Guler has left their pre-season touring party in the United States to return to Spain due to a knee injury.
The Turkish footballer had joined Los Blancos from Fenerbahce earlier this summer and impressed during his first training sessions under Carlo Ancelotti.
Guler travelled with Real Madrid for their pre-season tour of the USA, but he did not feature in wins over AC Milan and Manchester United.
The alarm bells went off last week when Arda Guler was absent from Real Madrid training for the first time on the American tour. At first, everything seemed to indicate that he was suffering from a muscle strain and that he would make his debut against Manchester United. But the wait dragged on and doubts began to hover over the player’s fitness.
During the following days, the Turkish player trained on the sidelines while waiting to be able to join the team. On the day before the Barcelona game, Arda did the muscular part of the training session with the team and then carried out recovery exercises. After finishing, he was seen chatting with Niko Mihic, the team doctor.
What appeared to be a mere strain has turned out to be an injury to the inner meniscus of his right knee. At the moment it is not known if there is a cartilage tear. In principle, the player is returning to Madrid to reinforce the treatment and not to undergo surgery. The club does not want to set a timetable because everything will depend on genetic makeup.
A statement from the club read;
“Following tests carried out on our new signing Arda Guler, he has been diagnosed with an injury to the internal meniscus of his right knee. The player will be transferred to Madrid in the next few hours to continue with a specific course of treatment.”
This means Arda Guler won’t feature in the stateside Clasico against Barcelona and likely not Real’s final friendly against Juventus before the domestic season starts.
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