FCBARCELONA.CAT

19.05.2008 19:06

Giovani out for a month

Berta Brau

The Mexican forward has had a successful operation on his left ankle. He is expected to take about four weeks to get over it.

Doctor Antoni Dalmau, the surgeon who operated on Giovani Dos Santos, and first team doctor Ricard Pruna held a press conference this Monday afternoon to talk about the operation and how it went.

Description of the operation

“Giovani dos Santos had a floating bone caused by the lack of consolidation of an ossification nucleus in the ankle bone. This defect in bone formation occurs behind the ankle bone during the growth phase,” said Doctor Dalmau. “It is a fairly common defect but doesn’t bother everyone, with discomfort being most frequent in sports players such as Giovani. We’ve taken out this floating bone and cleaned up the area to prevent the pinching which leads to the discomfort, and everything went very well.”

Four weeks on the sidelines

Doctor Pruna said it would be about four weeks before Giovani could go back to training with the rest of the players. “During the first two weeks the player will follow post-op procedure to check there have been no mishaps and starting in week three he’ll begin simple recovery work. At the end of the four weeks he will be able to play as usual.”

Background

“We kept an eye on this injury because the player told us in pre-season that his left ankle had been giving him some pain since he was a child, but he could still play,” said Ricard Pruna. Due to the discomfort the player has been given local anti-inflammatory infiltrations throughout the season which have enabled him to play the entire season with no impact on his performance. The doctors said that “today’s operation is not connected” with the injury Dos Santos picked up in the Cup match against Alcoyano.