Bayern forward Coman in knee splint after Champions League injury
Football
By
Reuters
| Dec 12, 2019
Bayern Munich forward Kingsley Coman has suffered an injury to his left knee that will keep him out for the foreseeable future, the German club has said.
The Frenchman was injured during Bayern’s 3-1 home victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League on Wednesday that sent them through to the competition’s knockout stages as group winners with a perfect record of six wins in six games.
Coman, 23, opened the scoring in the 14th minute but jarred his knee just over 10 minutes later and left the pitch in considerable pain.
""The diagnosis... revealed a capsule tear in the left knee," Bayern said on their website "Coman also pulled his biceps tendon and jarred the knee joint. The knee will be immobilised for a while with a splint."
Bayern did not say when Coman was expected to return to action.
READ MORE
Ngugi wa Thiong'o and the African literary revolution
Tanzania doctor describes bodies taken from morgue as fresh protests loom
The five-time European champions became the first German team, and only the seventh in all, to win all six group games in the Champions League, giving them a much-needed lift after their domestic struggles this season.
Bayern have won the German top-flight title a record 29 times, including the last seven seasons in a row, but are currently seventh in the league, seven points behind leaders Borussia Moenchengladbach.
The champions parted company with coach Niko Kovac last month and interim boss Hansi Flick said they would immediately switch focus to putting things right in the league, where they have lost their last two games.
“We didn’t get everything right today, but we won and that’s a sign that we have to keep going. We now have three games until the winter break to switch our attention to,” he added.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer hailed Bayern’s “historic” achievement in Europe, but said the team were already looking ahead to Saturday’s home league match against Werder Bremen.
“We didn’t just want to break the record in the group, we want to win every game,” Neuer added. “Now we have three more important games (before the Bundesliga shuts for winter on Dec. 22) and we have to put our all into winning all of them.”