Jose Izquierdo out for the season with another knee operation imminent
Jose Izqueirdo has been ruled out of Brighton and Hove Albion’s final two games of the Premier League season – and will probably require another operation on his knee this summer.
The Colombian winger has been plagued by injury throughout the campaign, making just nine starts and six substitutes appearances in the league. He appeared a further two times in the Albion’s run to the semi finals of the FA Cup, both from the bench and has registered only two assists and no goals all year.
It’s a far cry from his stellar first season in England. Izquierdo was one of the stand out performers in 2017-18 following his £13m move from Club Brugge, scoring three goal of the season contenders – he won our WeAreBrighton.com award for his stunning strike in the 3-1 home win over West Ham United – among a haul of five goals as well as racking up four assists from 32 games.
That form saw him called into the Colombia squad for last summer’s World Cup, which is where his problems began. Izquierdo picked up a knee cartilage injury in Russia which eventually required surgery, ruling him out for the first six games of the 2018-19 Premier League campaign.
He then suffered a different tear to the same cartilage in the same knee in December’s 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace, ruling him out for another two months and 11 matches.
In an attempt to try and overcome the problem, Izquierdo even sought the prayers of what he described as a “friendly Colombian priest”, which is the sort of quirky behaviour that has made him a real fan favourite at the Amex.
Whatever Father Pablo asked the big man upstairs to do hasn’t worked however, with rumours swirling that Izquierdo required a second knee operation even before he made his return in February’s 2-1 defeat away at Leicester City.
Since then, he’s looked miles off the pace except for his brief cameo off the bench against Millwall – a performance that must be taken lightly given it was against Championship relegation contenders who were dead on their feet by that point after a gruelling 90 minutes.
Izquierdo has started away at Wolverhampton Wanderers and at home to Newcastle United in the last few weeks but his showings in those two games only served to underline that an operation was imminent as he was plainly not fit.
He was poor in possession, couldn’t cross a ball if he tried and didn’t get past his man once in 156 minutes on the pitch – which begged the question, why did Chris Hughton pick him? Desperation due to the absolute shambles of a situation we find ourselves in and because he has finally realised that Alireza Jahanbakhsh isn’t very good, probably.
Hughton has said that surgery may not be required and that if it is, Izquierdo will come back the same player having made a full recovery. Given that this is the same Hughton who said Sam Baldock would be out for a couple of days with a minor knock, only for neither hide nor hair to be seen of him for the next six weeks back, we’d take that with a major pinch of salt.
A second operation on the same injury to the same knee is serious business for any professional footballer – let alone one who relies so much on pace and power from a starting position as Izquierdo does.
Even if he does recover, will he still be the same player? There are countless examples of players for whom speed was their man asset whose careers were never quite the same once they’d suffered a knee injury.
Everyone connected with the Albion will be hoping that Izquierdo does return at somewhere near his best. Not only is he one of the few players that Hughton currently has who is a genuine attacking threat, but he is one of the most popular individuals at the club due to his infectious personality – whether it be his laugh which is more high pitched than a school girl on helium, the fact he has set up an Instagram account dedicated to his pet pig or his inadvertent posing next to ‘CPFC’ grafiti when he first arrived at the Albion.
Fingers crossed it all goes well.
