Julio Enciso knee injury and its potential impact on Brighton
Less than two hours after posting on the WAB Twitter account that there was no point speculating about the knee injury Julio Enciso picked up in training, here we are speculating about the knee injury Julio Enciso picked up in training.
Paraguayan football journalist Roberto Rojas first reported on Wednesday afternoon that Enciso had been unable to complete Tuesday’s training session due to knee discomfort. Early suggestions were that Enciso had suffered a meniscus tear.
An injury was then confirmed in a statement released by the Paraguay FA. It read: “The player Julio Enciso has suffered trauma to his left knee, in one of his club’s training sessions.”
“He is being assisted and evaluated by the Brighton medical team and studies will be carried out in the next days. We are still waiting to know these results together with the official report of the injury, the treatment and the probable rehabilitation time.”
OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM @Albirroja:
“The player Julio Enciso has suffered trauma to his left knee, in one of his club's training sessions. He is being assisted and evaluated by the Brighton medical team and studies will be carried out in the next days.
We are still waiting to… https://t.co/lpslccLkE1
— Roberto Rojas (@RobertoRojas97) August 23, 2023
Earlier in the day, Albion fan Grant Packham posted on Twitter that he thought he had seen Enciso at the Amex wearing a knee brace and on crutches. Turns out he had.
Whilst crutches and a knee brace does not sound particularly good, meniscus tears are one of the most common types of footballing injury.
They impact everyone, from highly paid professionals like Enciso to an overweight bloke playing in a veterans six-a-side kick about at Stanley Deason on a Monday night.
Whereas said overweight bloke might take a while to recover, the knee of a young athlete like Enciso could potentially heal very quickly.
How long Enciso is out for will also depend on the severity of the problem. A mild meniscus tear is one to three weeks out, a moderate tear between four and six weeks and a severe tear six weeks or more, sometimes via a minor operation.
Crucial to a successful recovery from a meniscus tear is getting the correct diagnosis and treatment. Just ask Jose Izquierdo, whose knee injury whilst playing for Colombia at the 2018 World Cup ended up being a meniscus tear only diagnosed when he broke down in his second training session after getting back from Russia.
Izquierdo was particularly unfortunate in that he suffered a second tear to a different area of the meniscus on his return having had surgery on the first problem.
According to The Argus, a second operation was ruled out on medical advice. Instead, Izquierdo is said to have sat out the next two months and 11 matches before being pressed back into action in February as the Albion were sliding dangerously down the Premier League table.
He played eight times in the second half of the 2018-19 campaign despite not looking remotely fit. In fact, Izquierdo looked so crocked that rumours began circulating that he had in fact had a secret second operation in that spell out of the side between December 2018 and February 2019.
Whatever the treatment prescribed during that period was, it did not work. It was no surprise when the club revealed Izquierdo required another operation in the summer of 2019. He made just one more substitute appearance as a Brighton player and is now retired.
If that has suitably depressed you, remember cases like Izquierdo are rare. Even if Enciso has suffered a grade three tear and requires minor surgery, he could be back playing in eight weeks.
Given that the news of his injury was broken by the Paraguayan FA, it is safe to assume there is a chance Enciso will not be fit for September international duty.
Paraguay play Peru on September 7th and travel to Venezuela on September 12th. Brighton have two Premier League fixtures beforehand, facing West Ham United and Newcastle United in back-to-back home games at the Amex.
Enciso was magnificent in the 4-1 win against Wolves at the weekend, assisting both Solly March goals. The injury comes at a particularly cruel time for the player, who has delivered some mesmerising performances since breaking into the first team in the final two months of last season.
The Albion, however, will probably be thankful it occurred with eight days of the transfer window left open and not once it had slammed shut.
If Enciso is to be out for several weeks, Brighton may opt to keep Facundo Buonanotte or Steven Alzate at the Amex. Both midfielders have been linked with loan moves with their route to first team football previously blocked by a number of players ahead of them in the pecking order.
It might even force the Albion to move for a new number 10 before August 31st. Brighton were reported to have reached a club-record agreement with Ajax for Mohammed Kudus earlier in the summer, only for the club and player to fail to agree personal terms.
And who knows, Enciso might not even have an injury at all. In which case it has been a waste of my time writing nearly 900 words on the issue and a waste of your time reading it.
Unlike other Premier League managers, Roberto De Zerbi is not backwards in coming forwards when it comes to player injuries. He has used previous pre-game press conferences to reveal Adam Lallana was ruled out for the rest of the season.
De Zerbi is due to speak to the press before the West Ham game on Friday afternoon at 1.30pm. Expect some answers either way then.
