Viana injury blow for Newcastle
Newcastle’s Portuguese starlet Hugo Viana could need surgery after partially dislocating his shoulder in a training ground accident.
The 19-year-old midfielder is facing several weeks on the sidelines with the injury, and although the medics are hopeful that the joint will not have to be pinned to prevent it from slipping out again, that is a possibility.
It is a sickening reminder for Newcastle boss Sir Bobby Robson of the problem which forced his then England skipper Bryan Robson out of the 1986 World Cup Finals.
“Hugo Viana sadly, distressingly, depressingly has semi-dislocated his shoulder,” Robson said.
“He’s had a scan, he’s seen the specialist and I’m afraid it will be a few weeks.
“I’m just absolutely sad about it. The surgeon thinks we should just rehabilitate it in normal fashion and it’s going to take several weeks – two, three, four or five, something like that – and we hope it won’t pop out again.
“It’s sort of semi-popped out, and once they do that, any knock after that, any fall....I remember the Bryan Robson scenario at the World Cup in Mexico. We sent him home in the end.
“So it’s sad, and maybe at the end of the season, we’ll have to pin it. We need to try to just soldier on with it, see if doesn’t pop out and get away with it.
“If it does pop out again, the maybe at some stage this season, we’ll have to pin it during the season, and he will be out for several weeks then.
“It’s a blow to us. But never mind, there’s not much I can do about it.”
Robson made Viana one of the game’s most expensive teenagers when he paid Sporting Lisbon £8.5million for his services during the summer.
He has struggled to command a regular place in the starting line-up, but has been thrown into the heat of both Premiership and Champions League action, scoring his first competitive goal for the club in a 4-0 win over Bosnian champions NK Zeljeznicar on August 28.
But he is seen as a major part of Newcastle’s future and a long-term replacement for Gary Speed, the man he was in line to replace at Aston Villa tomorrow with the Welshman suspended.
Already a full international, Viana starred for Portugal’s Under-21s in their 3-1 demolition of England in this summer’s European Championship Finals in Switzerland and was voted as Europe’s top young player by the coaches of Italy’s Serie A clubs.
Indeed, he has consistently been linked with a move to Italy after spending so much time on the bench at St James’ Park, with Juventus said to be monitoring his situation.
However, he is one of the keystones upon which Robson is building his vision for the future alongside fellow 19-year-old Jermaine Jenas and the likes of Craig Bellamy, Kieron Dyer, Aaron Hughes, Andy Griffin, Andy O’Brien and Titus Bramble.
