Dutch Manchester United striker Robin van Persie will be sidelined for four to six weeks due to a sprained knee sustained shortly after scoring against Olympiakos in the Champions League on Thursday.
Van Persie, regarded as being one of the best strikers in the world, joined Manchester United in 2012, after leaving Arsenal as team captain. Van Persie was United’s highest scorer last season, logging 30 goals, helping his team to win the Premier League title. His style of play has drawn comparisons to legendary Dutch striker Macro van Basten.
If van Persie, 30, is out for the full six weeks, he will only be able to participate in two or three of United’s final Premier League games. United manager David Moyes had hoped that United’s 3-0 victory over Olympiakos would be a turning point for a bad season, as his team has already been eliminated from both domestic cup competitions.
Van Persie was injured shortly after scoring on this free kick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knH-JsUnj1o
Van Persie was taken off the field in a stretcher, and United manager Moyes commented during his weekly press conference that “We’re just getting him re-scanned again today. We’re not conclusive in everything we’ve seen yet, so we want to check that out and be sure. He won’t be available for the West Ham game, but we’ll try to give some update as soon as we can on the outcome of it.”
Then Manchester United took to Twitter to confirm van Persie’s sidelined status:
BREAKING: Following further investigation, Robin van Persie has a sprained knee, which will keep him out for around four to six weeks. #mufc
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 21, 2014
Moyes had at first minimized the seriousness of the sprain, saying it was “hopefully not too bad.” Repeated injuries have restricted van Persie to only 18 league games this season, but he was still able to rack up 11 goals.
Image via YouTube.