Moraes’s operation, Alan Patrick’s return

- Mr Popov, how are things going with Moraes's injury? How long will it take to recover?

- Junior got a very serious injury last week - torn lateral and cruciate ligaments in the knee. That’s one of the most complicated injuries in football and it requires a lengthy post-operative rehabilitation period - nine months to get the player back on track. The forward, accompanied by Artur Hluschenko, flew to Spain where Junior was operated on at one of the local clinics. After returning to Ukraine, the player will have a recovery period.

- What’s the diagnosis of Valerii Bondar who was injured in the game vs Oleksandriia?

- Many people probably saw that terrible collision when the leg just moved to the side ... Valerii was highly likely to have the same injury as Junior has, but, fortunately, this wasn’t confirmed by the MRI scan. His cruciate ligament is intact, but there is damage to the medial collateral ligament of the knee joint. There was a partial tear. This injury is also quite unpleasant, but the recovery period is shorter - about three months. And most importantly, Valerii doesn’t need any surgery so far. We will try to do it by applying just a therapeutic approach: rehabilitation, physiotherapy, plus we will add a growth factor, and the ligament should heal up. A bit later, we will carry out an additional examination and then take the final decision on the treatment tactic. But all the same, the player will be off the pitch for two to three months.

- Alan Patrick, Ismaily, Konoplyanka - when can we expect those guys to return?

- On Tuesday, Alan Patrick had an intense session with a fitness coach before returning to the general group. He got a decent workload, perhaps even a greater one than that of the guys who trained in the general group. He’s got no negative sensations, and today Patrick has trained in the general group. Ismaily continues training with a fitness coach. He was also injected with growth factors, and just the other day he had the PRP therapy. It will take another three days to stop the inflammatory reaction caused by this therapy, but next week Isma may well return to the general group. As for Konoplyanka, he continues rehabilitation activities. Yevhen’s injury is serious and requires a long rehabilitation period, but everything is going in line with the schedule.