Manchester United are facing a concern with Benjamin Sesko’s shin injury, a medical expert has warned.
Injured
United fans are still waiting with bated breath to find out whether or not Sesko will be available to face Tottenham Hotspur this weekend.
Sesko missed the meeting with Fulham just before the international break. His injury has sparked a lot of debate. United legends Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt slammed him for not wearing shin pads, as did Wayne Rooney. United’s record goalscorer later apologised after learning the issue may be serious.
A recent report covered by The Peoples Person relayed that Sesko has not been completely ruled out of the Tottenham Hotspur game despite not featuring in last week’s behind-closed-doors friendly against INEOS-owned FC Lausanne-Sport. Now, Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs, which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, has sounded an alarm to United.
Sesko warning
Smith told Metro, “The risk is always there with recurrence. With injuries like this, you are playing a game of whack-a-mole.”
“They can be very challenging. The first thing you try isn’t always going to be the thing that works. They will be assessing what they did the first time around and now looking at different options. I would be confident they won’t just be doing the same thing because that hasn’t fixed it. They will want to move on.”
“Caution is the right word here. Given this has flared up again they will be inclined to be more cautious, not less. In terms of timelines, Unless he responds incredibly quickly and very differently than last time around, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a similar time frame and similar time lost as we saw last time.”
In terms of recovery, Smith remarked, “One option is to continue the conservative management. That is the route they have been going down so far. Separately, they may also look at some very specific treatments that are aimed at bone or soft tissue healing.”
He continued, “If it keeps resurfacing and imaging points to something more structural like a stress fracture that isn’t healing, more invasive options become part of the conversation.”
“Sometimes surgery can be considered. Looking at something like this initially, all you are doing is X-ray which gives you some picture of the bone but you are not going to get everything.”
“So they may be looking at doing MRI or CT (scan) on the bone as well to see if they can see any further damage or trauma.”
“Sometimes you get microfractures that aren’t healing. They can go in and perform micro fracture treatment around it. They may get in there and put small breaks into the bone to create blood flow and try kickstart the healing process. But that’s a very invasive option and you are left dealing with a broken bone and all the time requirements from that to handle.”
“If it keeps recurring beyond this than a more definitive surgical option becomes a bigger part of the conversation. But that is generally a last resort in this scenario when the conservative approaches have had a proper chance and not been successful.”
“It could be something more mechanical, something to do with his own biomechanics in how he is running. They could indeed be performing really detailed biomechanical analysis on him now to see if there is something going on that’s causing this.”
“The priority right now is to get an unbelievably precise diagnosis to ensure the club is not managing a recurring issue without knowing what is driving it. From there, it is about building a return which is not set by a date on the calendar. Realistically, when he is back playing he will likely need some individual management but right now, I wouldn’t be concerned with this being something that could plague him for the rest of his career.”
United vs. Tottenham Hotspur kicks off at 5.30 pm.
Featured image by George Wood via Getty Images
