Varane injured his left ankle in a shock received shortly after the half hour mark, when Manchester United were still trailing by only one goal. The former Lensois and Madrid player briefly left his team at ten to receive treatment, a numerical inferiority which allowed Manchester City to double the score from a corner. Varane picked up his place and kept running for seven minutes, but came late to Manchester City’s third goal, scored by Haaland.
Replaced by the Swede Victor Lindelöf, he did not go directly to the tunnel to receive treatment. His coach Erik ten Hag, however, felt the injury was significant enough to make the substitution, but hinted that the heavy scoreline was an additional reason to spare his defensive stalwart.
The carnage continues
“When the score is 4-0 (it was 3-0 when Varane left, editor’s note), you have to take it out, because you don’t want to risk a bigger injury,” he explained. . The club will communicate more precisely in the middle of the week on the nature of the injury of the French international, before the trip to Manchester United on the ground of Omonia Nicosia for the fourth day of the group stage of the Europa League.
The player with 87 caps has been regularly injured since leaving Real Madrid for north-west England in 2021. This new physical glitch adds to the long list of injured French team defenders: the brothers Lucas and Théo Hernandez, Jules Koundé and Presnel Kimpembe had to forfeit the last gathering of the Blues a week ago.
