Burnley news: Medical expert issues ‘horrific’ Ashley Westwood claim as footage analysed
It looks likely that Burnley star Ashley Westwood has suffered an ankle fracture-dislocation.
That is the view of injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.
Westwood, 32, was stretchered off after half an hour in Burnley’s eventual 1-1 draw with West Ham at the London Stadium last Sunday (17 April).
Play was stopped for nine minutes after the midfielder’s leg was trapped under the weight of a challenge from Nikola Vlasic.
As quoted by Lancs Live yesterday (18 April), interim Burnley boss Michael Jackson said that Westwood had been rushed to hospital.
Dinnery used the footage of the “horrific” incident to assess how long the former Aston Villa man might be out of action.
“My initial thoughts were that it could be a fracture-dislocation,” the Sheffield Hallam University expert told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“The footage looks horrific and it is undoubtedly a serious setback. It will be a few months on the sidelines at the very least.
“But we are hopefully not looking at something that is career-ending.
“In recent times, we can look at the likes of Harvey Elliott who suffered a similar setback.
“He has returned and is arguably up there in terms of reaching his pre-injury levels.
“We saw Andre Gomes at Everton who was back training with the team again after 85 days. Harvey Elliot Eliott was closer to that four to five-month period.
“No two injuries are the same. Wesley Fofana had a dislocated ankle and fractured fibula and he was out for close to seven months.
“The initial prognosis from the video footage is unfortunate, very painful. But there is nothing to suggest we won’t see him back on the pitch this year.”
Westwood has registered five assists in 29 appearances this term.
His Burnley side are 18th in the Premier League with seven games left to play.
In other news, Burnley line up move for Middlesbrough man Kieran Scott.