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Villa’s Norwegian ‘keeper Orjan Nyland, injured after the recent 1-1 draw at Preston, has undergone surgery.
Nyland, who has in truth struggled to adapt to life at Villa and the physicality of The Championship, ruptured his achilles tendon in training.
There is no doubting that this is a serious injury, that whilst surgery to repair is relatively short in nature, the recovery period is notoriously long and arduous.
Optimistically, Nyland misses the remainder of the 2018/2019 season, but achilles ruptures can require a full years healing and recovery. Most troublingly, the likelihood is that owing to the nature of the injury a 100% return to strength is unlikely.
As an interesting aside, surgery was undertaken at BMI The Hampshire Clinic, a unit that is rated as ‘Requiring Improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). As recently as July 2018, this clinic was served with a a Warning Notice under Section 29 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 [see report]. Specifically and perhaps more worryingly this rating applied to Surgery:
Whilst the road for recovery for Nyland is likely to be a long one, Villa moved swiftly to recall Jed Steer from his season long loan at Charlton.
Steer returned between the sticks for Villa’s 2-2 draw with QPR on New Years Day, but will now be the direct competition for Croatian international signing Lovre Kalinic.