Napoli centre-back Vlad Chiriches will be out for 3-4 weeks after picking up a knee injury whilst on national duty with Romania.
The possibility of a distortion or rupture to his knee joint circulating around the Romania captain scan. But thankfully for Napoli and Romania, results revealed that the injury was not severe as first feared.
As the Romania captain returned to Italy, Napoli confirmed the minor extent of Chiriches injury to its fans. The tweet read: “Chiriches' visits at Villa Stuart are finished, The situation is not nearly as serious as [was predicted] in the most pessimistic scenarios."
The club moments later posted on their official website to explain the proccedings that took place in Chiriches examination. The Naples club told fans Chiriches had undergone a 20-minutes surgery to “fix a slight lesion to the medial meniscus ligament.”
Games Chiriches will miss
The centre-back is likely to be absent for at least five of Napoli’s upcoming games. Due to the international break, Chiriches will miss no Napoli games until next week when they travel to Palermo.
Maurizio Sarri’s men then take on Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine as the Champions League group stage gets underway. Three Serie A games against Bologna, Genoa and Chievo in the space of seven days come thick and fast for the partenopei.
Who will replace Chiriches
Despite Chiriches’ injury, much will remain the same in Napoli’s starting 11. This season’s centre-half pairing has saw Raul Albiol and Kalidou Koulibaly partner each other at the heart of the Napoli defence.
There will no reason for coach Sarri to introduce to many changes following their impressive 4-2 victory over AC Milan last week at the Stadio San Paolo to put their disappointing opening day draw to Pescara behind them.