{"id":3072,"date":"2014-03-28T00:30:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T00:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=3072"},"modified":"2014-03-28T21:53:55","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T21:53:55","slug":"valdes-creer-almost-certain-to-be-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/valdes-creer-almost-certain-to-be-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Valdes Career Almost Certain To Be Over"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Victor Valdes\u2019 Barcelona career is almost certainly over after the goalkeeper sustained a serious knee injury against Celta Vigo on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard will need surgery after damaging his anterior cruciate ligament as he jumped to collect a loose ball and landed badly.<\/p>\n

Valdes was taken off on a stretcher in the 23rd minute and was in great pain as he was removed from the pitch.<\/p>\n

Barcelona’s official website released a statement saying: ‘V\u00edctor Vald\u00e9s suffered an ACL tear on 22 minutes after saving a free kick from Augusto.<\/p>\n

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‘The Club’s Medical Services confirm that he will need surgery. The keeper fell awkwardly on his right leg, forcing him to ask to be substituted.’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The goalkeeper, who joined the club at just 10 years old and made his debut in 2002, was taken to hospital as the game progressed.<\/p>\n

Barcelona ran out 3-0 winners but their bid to win La Liga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey has been dented by Valdes\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n

He will be out for several months and it is known that he will leave Barcelona at the end of the season when his contract runs out.<\/p>\n

After the game Neymar said: ‘We are very sad for our team-mate.’<\/p>\n

Tata Martino did not want to speculate at the extent of the injury. He said: ‘Valdes’s injury is a big blow. Thought we had already had all our bad luck this season, but I was wrong. The team will keep going.’<\/p>\n

Barcelona are allowed to sign a goalkeeper on emergency loan from another La Liga side, but Martino will not take up the option.<\/p>\n

‘We won’t sign a goalkeeper. We will finish the season with this group,’ Martino said. ‘I am not one to believe in bad luck, but at this stage of the season I thought everything that was to happen had already occurred. I was wrong.<\/p>\n

‘It’s a big blow but this team has rolled with punches for some time now and we will pull through this.’<\/p>\n

Jose Manuel Pinto will fill in for Valdes and he made some good saves against Celta Vigo, but also had one shaky moment which worried Barcelona’s supporters.<\/div>\n

Valdes’s Barcelona team-mate Javier Mascherano expressed his sorrow on Twitter, saying: ‘Nothing to celebrate. Get well soon Victor Valdes.’<\/p>\n

Andres Iniesta, a good friend of Valdes, who was taken off at half time after he complained of a calf pain, added: ‘It is a horrible piece of news. The game changed with Victor’s injury. It’s always hard to take when something like this happens, but we will keep going with the same spirit.’<\/p>\n

Manchester United goalkeeeper David de Gea, who may stand to benefit if Valdes is ruled out of the Spain World Cup squad, wrote: ‘I want to give all my support and strengh to a goalkeeper that I admire and respect. Victor Valdes, wish you get well and see you soon in the pitch.’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Victor Valdes\u2019 Barcelona career is almost certainly over after the goalkeeper sustained a serious knee injury against Celta Vigo on Wednesday night. The Spaniard will need surgery after damaging his anterior cruciate ligament as he jumped to collect a loose ball and landed badly. Valdes was taken off on a stretcher in the 23rd minute […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,81],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3111,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions\/3111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}