Hopefully it's not as bad as previously thought. Go Oldie..you got this!
Your positive vibes may have worked.
Good-ish news for Ben Old: His injury isn’t a crucial ligament. Seems to be a lateral ligament, still waiting news on any meniscus damage. He’ll be out for a while but it may not be season-ending after all #FlyingKiwishttps://t.co/V4QkWhs6d7
What a bummer. Still, he showed enough promise to deserve a second chance once he's recovered. If the knee holds up post surgery, this forced stop might actually be a blessing in disguise, by giving Ben the chance to recover from the various (ankle comes to mind) other issues he's been suffering from on and off. Given his age though, this amount of injuries starts to be a bit concerning. Still, some people get them out of the way early and then they're fine for the rest of their career. Best of luck Oldie!
That sucks. Rojas and Singh both had their early careers after big moves cut short with bad injuries, Ben has the same potential as those two had at his age - I wish him all the best.
seems quite often a player from the AL suffers some soft tissue injury fairly early into their European sojourn.
Translation: “The New Zealand international, who suffered a sprained knee, underwent successful surgery today, Thursday. He suffered an injury to the internal lateral ligament and the meniscus, and the winger will be unavailable between four and six months. The entire club gives him its full support and wishes him a speedy recovery.”
And there we have our answer. Good news and bad news. The bad being that he’s going to miss 4-6 months in recovery having already undergone knee surgery. The good news is that there was no damage to the anterior or posterior cruciate which would have probably meant 9+ months on the sideline and a very premature end to his first season in France. This way he’s a chance to return before the end of things, which is crucial since the club are likely to remain in a relegation battle. Old has played six Ligue 1 matches to date. Five of those were starts. 378 minutes in total. He’s got a four year contract so nothing to worry about there.
Cool to see the ASSE lads wearing “Get well soon Oldie” shirts during pre-game warm-ups this week. Unfortunately they did lost 4-2 away to Angers, but the sentiment was lovely...
Ben Old's teammate, Zuriko Davitashvili won ligue 1 Player of the Month for October. He was starting on the right wing when Ben was fit, but shifted to the left to replace him and popped off. Luckily the various right wing replacements haven't looked fantastic, so hopefully when Ben is back Davitashvili will shift back to the right, but no guarantees. Davitashvili is only 23 himself - shows how cut throat Europe can be though with competition for minutes
Baze was asked about Old on Piney's Saturday radio show. Sounds like (paraphrasing) he is expected to be back and able to play around/just before the March window, but that it could be wise to not pick him when he is just getting back to playing fitness.
He's in NZ atm (or was recently - had a photo of AP being accosted by young fans at an Auckland cafe on his socials with the caption "cant take him anywhere"). Probably means a return isn't imminent.
Started training with the ball last week, and they're hoping to include him in some capacity in 3-4 weeks.
🎙️ Eirik Horneland avant #ASSEOGCN 🏥 : "Le seul joueur absent de l’entraînement aujourd’hui était Yvann Maçon, mais ce n’est que par précaution, pour alléger sa charge de travail. Dennis Appiah et Pierre Cornud ont repris l’entraînement hier, ils sont aptes. Ben Old travaille… pic.twitter.com/SMjXLimZC2
I don't think Old should leave if they get relegated. France Div 2 wouldn't be the worst place to spend a season or two, get serious minutes and help get the club promoted.
Worst case scenario, if he performs but the team doesn't; he'll get offers.
Ben should stay where he is. If he thrives in Ligue 2 he will be picked up 100% by a bigger club. He made an impact that was noticed in his short start to the season. Ligue 2 will suite his game. More space and he will be playing in a much more competitive team.
