Munich (Germany) (AFP)
French Bayern Munich international Corentin Tolisso underwent surgery on Friday for a serious tear in a muscle tendon in a thigh that should deprive him of the Euro, his coach Hansi Flick evoking Friday "a long absence".
"It's a serious muscle injury, a torn tendon. On a shot (in training), he felt intense pain, there had been no warning sign," said the coach from Bayern.
According to German media, the 26-year-old midfielder could be absent for up to six months and would therefore be forced to forfeit Euro-2020, rescheduled from June 11 to July 11, 2021 due to the Covid-19.
"I spoke with him this morning (Friday). He has already been operated on, but we do not yet know the results," Flick said at his press conference on the eve of the Bundesliga match in Frankfurt.
"It really hurt me for him. I'm more than convinced that he only needed a little rhythm (...) We will support him for the weeks and months to come so that he come back to its best level, "he added.
Tolisso has always been a second choice this season for Hansi Flick, who has only started him seven times in 22 Bundesliga matches.
The 2018 world champion has been hampered a lot by injuries over the past three years.
In 2018-19, he missed much of the season, from September to March, due to a cruciate ligament rupture.
Last season, he was absent for two and a half months, from April to June (after the championship had resumed after the interruption due to Covid-19), due to an ankle operation.
And this season, the former Lyonnais had already missed six matches for two different muscle injuries.
Partly probably because of these injuries, Tolisso has never really won at Bayern since his arrival in 2017 from Lyon, for 41.5 million euros, which at the time had made him the most expensive player ever bought by Bayern (record broken since by Lucas Hernandez, 80 million).
So far, there is only one lining left for the German international duo Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka.
© 2021 AFP