AS.com

Celta defender Hugo Mallo is out for six months, and will miss the rest of the season, having ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. The injury occurred last night during the return leg of the Copa del Rey tie against Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabéu and was confirmed by a scan today. It would appear that the player has also torn the lateral meniscus in the same joint. The injury occurred just before half time in the Copa del Rey match, as the player went after the ball subsequent to a tussle with Cristiano Ronaldo, although the Portuguese striker wasn't involved directly in the movement that led to the injury.

The medical tests carried out this morning confirmed the extent of the injury, according to Celta club doctor Juan José García Cota, who is also the Spanish national team doctor: "The MRI confirms what we suspected, a complete rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament as well as a tear in the lateral meniscus. This requires surgical intervention to both reconstruct the ruptured ligament and also to treat the injury to the meniscus".

According to the Celta medic it is likely that they will attempt to suture the torn meniscus, "because its integrity is very important to the success" of the ligament reconstruction. "If we can suture it to maintain it entirely then it's much better for the knee going forward, much better than if we have to extract the injured section", he explained.

The doctor also stated that the operation would not be carried out straight away: "We'll decide later when to do the operation. It's not urgent, and in fact it's better that the knee 'cools down' a little before we think about the procedure. We'll probably do it at some point over the course of next week", said García.

In the communication sent by Celta the club wished the player "a complete recovery" and also thanked the "innumerable messages of support received".