Roma Newcomer Saelemaekers Set for Spell on the Shelf

Roma won’t be able to field Alexis Saelemaekers for an extended period of time as he picked up a major ankle injury against Genoa. The early diagnosis is grim as the first test showed a microfracture right below his fibula besides a sprain, Gazzetta dello Sport informs.

He will be further assessed once the swelling subsides. He and the team doctors will have to decide whether he needs surgery or if a conservative therapy will suffice to heal fully. Georginio Wijnaldum suffered a similar issue two seasons ago.

Saelemaekers will be out for at least 30/40 days, potentially longer if he goes under the knife. He’ll surely miss the upcoming stretch of games before the next international break.

The Belgian international joined Roma on a late swap of loans with Tammy Abraham with Milan. He started twice in a row right off the bat, handling a few different positions on the wings.

Our Take on Roma and Saelemaekers

It’s quite unfortunate as, while he’s not indispensable, he’s a jack-of-all-trades, and they’ll lack ome pop on the flanks sans him. Daniele De Rossi made the anticipated switch to a three-man line in the last round, but they’ll have a tough time using its most dynamic version, with Angelino in the rearguard, now, and they’ll have to deploy three pure fullbacks together most of the times. It’ll also be a little more challenging to balance other formations. They’ll have to hope Saud Abdulhamid and Samuel Dahl adjust quickly and bring something interesting to the table to have credible depths wide.

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