Brighton have suffered some pretty cruel injury blows this season – but the news that on loan Barcelona forward Ansu Fati is set for up to three months on the side lines with a muscular injury is one of the most devastating of the lot.
Fati limped off after only 21 minutes of the Albion’s 3-2 win away at Nottingham Forest. Speaking before Brighton faced AEK Athens in their Europa League/Winner Takes The Elgin Marbles clash at the OPAP Arena, Roberto De Zerbi said: “Ansu and Lamptey are both injured. We’ve lost them for a long time.”
De Zerbi has spent the past three months carefully managing how much Ansu Fati plays for Brighton following an injury hit couple of years.
Having burst onto the scene by setting a series of ‘Youngest Player to Ever…’ records at Barcelona, Fati suffered a meniscus tear which put him on the shelf for nine months.
The view in Catalonia was that Fati never fully recovered from the problem. And the solution was to send him out on loan for a year of regular football.
Spurs looked certain to be Fati’s destination until he spoke to De Zerbi. One phone call with the charismatic Italian was it all took to convince Fati to instead move to the Amex.
De Zerbi revealed his plans to be ultra-cautious with Fati from the moment the Spanish international arrived in Sussex.
“If you work with this talent, you have much responsibility because it’s our football heritage,” De Zerbi said. “We can’t make mistakes with these players because football needs this talent and you have to manage it in different ways.”
With that in mind, Forest was only the second Premier League start Fati had made for Brighton. The first came in the preceding game against Sheffield United, before which he had been introduced from the bench on seven occasions.
Despite this lack of domestic game time, Fati was beginning to make a real impression on English football. In 317 Premier League minutes – the equivalent of around three-and-a-half full matches – Fati had contributed two goals, seven on target shots and five big chances.
Only Evan Ferguson and Kaoru Mitoma can compete with those numbers – but with Ferguson having played double Fati’s minutes and Mitoma treble.
De Zerbi had been more willing to use Fati in the Europa League. Fati had started all four of the Albion’s Group B matches prior to the trip to AEK, providing two goals and one assist.
With Ansu Fati becoming more influential by the week, the injury comes at a particularly cruel time for both the player and Brighton.
If he is to be ruled out for three months, then Fati will have spent a third of his loan in the treatment room. Not what either Barcelona or the Albion would have wanted.
When the switch from Barcelona to Brighton was announced, it was rumoured that the Seagulls were covering up to 80 percent of Fati’s wages, estimated to be around £160,000 per week.
Fati is the sixth Brighton player this season to be ruled out with a long term injury. Julio Enciso, Solly March, Danny Welbeck, Pervis Estupinan and Lamptey have all been or are enduring many months on the side lines.
In the cases of Estupinan and Lamptey, both broke down within 30 minutes of their returns from previous injuries – resulting in even longer spells out.
For that to happen to one player is unfortunate. For it to happen twice in the space of a month suggests the Albion need to review how quickly players are being thrown into competitive action after injury.
Brighton will surely not do the same with Fati. As De Zerbi has said, the Albion cannot make mistakes with such a talent.
