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Man United star Donny van de Beek faces year out with knee ligament damage after sickening blow
Man United star Donny van de Beek could be out for up to a year after with a suspected ACL knee injury.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about his initial reaction to Van de Beek’s injury on Tuesday night.
United enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 victory over Bournemouth this week but sadly watched their Dutch midfielder head straight down the tunnel after suffering a gruesome injury late in the first half.
Van de Beek was tackled by Cherries midfielder Marcos Senesi moments before the half-time whistle and was spotted writhing in pain before being taken immediately down the tunnel at Old Trafford.
Erik ten Hag admitted after the match on Tuesday evening (3 January) that it “does not look good” based on the club’s initial verdict, although he insisted they will have to wait for scan results before delivering an accurate diagnosis.
Dinnery echoed Ten Hag’s view by predicting a lengthy spell out of action for the 25-year-old and said the injury reminded him of two previous incidents in the Premier League.
“I cast my mind back to both Zlatan Ibrahimovich and Kurt Zouma’s injuries a few years ago,” Dinnery told Football Insider’s Sean fisher.
“The knee hyperextended and then you also see the knee bend inwards. When you add the external force and the power from the challenge – it didn’t look great.
“Internally, Man United will now be carrying out a number of tests to evaluate the player, checking the integrity of the ligaments.
“The ACL is the obvious one – the Lachman test. It will be a good indication of if there is any damage, and they’ll also check for a fracture of the bone as well as any damage to the posterior cruciate ligament.
“Given the force of the challenge and the mechanism of the injury, they don’t usually happen in isolation.
“There’s potential involvement with the MCL (Medial Collateral ligament) and even some meniscus damage as well.
“Imaging will confirm the extent of the problem and they’ll hope the results come back better than initially feared, but I suspect he’ll have a lengthy spell on the sidelines.“
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