Arsenal Captain Laurent Koscielny went down to the ground after suffering a serious injury in the early minutes of his side’s Europa League semifinal tie with Atletico Madrid. While the match is still ongoing, with the Gunners currently trailing Atletico as we approach stoppage time, the Gunners have already confirmed that the injury is a torn achilles.
This would almost certainly end both his club season, and his World Cup hopes with France this June as well.
It was a no contact injury for Koscielny, who went down far away from where the ball was in play. Koscielny went down clutching his ankle and yelling in pain. He was eventually stretchered off after receiving treatment on the pitch.
A moment of class from Diego Costa, who signals for play to be stopped after seeing Laurent Koscielny collapse in a heap on the floor while Atletico Madrid were on the attack ? pic.twitter.com/bFgZmTlh2V
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) May 3, 2018
Atletico striker Diego Costa, a former Chelsea man, is being hailed for his genuine class and exceptional sportsmanship as he immediately signaled for the bench, and pleaded for play to be stopped as he noticed the world of hurt that Koscielny was in.
Given the kind of reputation that has preceded Costa up until this moment, his noble gesture was a very pleasant surprise. Costa would later score the game’s only goal to this point, on the stroke of halftime.
Koscielny already had a lot of serious achilles issues prior to this evening. About a year ago, the Frenchman revealed that he will require daily treatment on an Achilles injury for the rest of his career.
As the Evening Standard pointed out last May in their article on this topic, Koscielny “was diagnosed with chronic tendinitis in both feet by the French Football Federation during an international break in October 2014.”
This injury, on top of Koscileny’s age, 32, plus all the turnover headed to Arsenal football club this summer when the new manager comes in, makes one wonder about whether or not he will still have a future with the north London club.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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