With summer getting closer by the day – not that you’d think it based on the weather prediction – we’re at the point in the season where every knock and niggle causes a twinge of worry. An injury around this time of year could jeopardize your prospects of playing in Euro 2024, as well as any chances you had of securing a big-money transfer.
For a £20 million-rated midfielder on the radar of Wolves and Nottingham Forest, his chances of a summer move to the Premier League – or a starting spot at the European Championships – are over.
Lewis Ferguson, the driving force behind Bologna’s improbable Champions League run under Thiago Motta, damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in the weekend’s 0-0 stalemate against Bologna.
As a result, the Scotland international will miss not only the forthcoming European Championships, but he may possibly have made his final appearance in 2024. ACL injuries, after all, typically take eight to nine months to recover.
Wolves and Nottingham Forest target tears his ACL
“Devastated with today’s news,” a depressed Ferguson said on Instagram when the severity of the blow was revealed. “But that is life. I will do all in my power to come back stronger and better than before. Thank you all for your support.
“See you soon.”
It is unclear how’soon’ will be defined.
HITC wrote in March that 2018 was shaping up to be a busy summer for the former Aberdeen prodigy, and not only because Scotland had another tournament to look forward to. In addition to Nottingham Forest, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Brentford, and Brighton, we learn that Italian heavyweights Atalanta, AC Milan, and Juventus are interested in signing the 24-year-old.
Ferguson, who has been compared to Aston Villa captain and compatriot John McGinn for his unrelenting energy and box-crashing abilities, also became the top-scoring Scot in Serie A history, surpassing the legendary Denis Law, when he scored six goals in the current season at Bologna.
Lewis Ferguson’s Scotland dreams are dashed.
“In my opinion, Juve should take them both,” Juventus legend Alessio Tacchinardi told Tuttosport, pushing Massimiliano Allegri’s team to strengthen their sluggish engine room with Ferguson and Atalanta’s Teun Koopmeiners.
“This team needs midfielders who can score goals. They can both do it. (Juventus) requires aggressive players. Players who dribble and attack the net. In my opinion, they are both Juventus players.
“I would focus on opportunities of this nature and try to contact both Koopmeiners and Ferguson. Koopmeiners scores ten goals per season, Ferguson almost as much, while Juve’s midfielders never score. That is what Juve is missing.
That appears to be what Scotland will be lacking as well, with Ferguson’s absence increasing the strain on McGinn and Scott McTominay when Steve Clarke’s side face Switzerland, Hungary, and host nation Germany in the Euro 2024 group stages in June.
