Quickly, we understood that the long seconds spent on the ground by Lucas Hernandez on the lawn of Signal Iduna Park, Wednesday evening, did not bode well. Understood that this shock causing a violent twisting of the left knee was not trivial. Understood that this sharp, intense pain was far from being fake and that it brought many bad memories to the surface.
The signals were numerous and worrying, even if this warrior at heart had returned to battle a few moments before giving way to Lucas Beraldo. In the minutes following the Parisian defeat in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League (1-0), the fear of a hard blow could be seen on the faces of several employees of the capital club, who could not mask their anxiety. . “It doesn’t smell good,” a close friend of the group told us when he mentioned the name of world champion.
He will miss very important deadlines
The fears were confirmed less than twenty-four hours later: rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in the left knee for the 28-year-old French defender. Those around him waited feverishly all day for the results of these tests. The MRI taken by Lucas Hernandez this Thursday confirmed the concerns generated by the first medical examinations and the pessimism which surrounded his state of health.
This injury is another stroke of bad luck, a real heartbreak for a player already suffering from a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during the World Cup in Qatar. The former Bayern Munich defender had managed to overcome this injury and return to the highest level, here he is engaged in the same process, a year and a half later.
Whatever happens, Lucas Hernandez will be sidelined for several months and miss the crucial meetings at the end of the season. With his PSG club, already. The defender will miss the Champions League semi-final return against Dortmund next Tuesday, the Coupe de France final on May 25 against OL, and a possible Champions League final on June 1 at Wembley. In selection, then, since this long-term absence should deprive him of the Euro organized in Germany this summer (June 14 to July 14) under the jersey of the France team.
His experience, his experience in a group with which he was world champion and his versatility, he who is capable of playing in the center and in the left lane, will be missed by the Blues and Didier Deschamps during the tournament. To replace him, the coach does not have infinite solutions.
Champions League semi-finalist with Real Madrid, Ferland Mendy could take advantage of this package to return, even though he has not played with the Blues since September 2022. Behind, Lucas Digne (Aston Villa) also remains an alternative credible. Deschamps could also opt for Eduardo Camavinga in the role of understudy for Théo Hernandez, the midfielder having already played in this role with Real or in the selection.
Luis Enrique counted heavily on him
This injury just now deprives Luis Enrique of one of his most reliable players and an element on which he relied heavily throughout the season. Behind Hakimi, he was, until now, the most used defender and the player with the sixth most playing time.
Starting on the left during the first months before switching to the center since this winter, even going to help out at the right-back position one evening in the quarter-final first leg against Barça, Lucas Hernandez brought his know-how to a Parisian team still young and inexperienced. His pair with Marquinhos outlined the contours of a complementary, serene, reassuring hinge where the Frenchman brought the dose of aggression and vice necessary in matches at high altitude.
Faced with Füllkrug, a scorer on the action, Hernandez could do nothing. Reuters
The way in which he managed, until his injury, the physical challenge imposed on him by Niclas Füllkrug, with energy and impact, and the difficulties encountered by Beraldo in this register demonstrate the great void left by the world champion in view of the return match. Several options are available to Luis Enrique, that of returning the Brazilian to the axis is one of them.
But his lack of experience and his two performances against Barça and Dortmund say everything about the path that still separates him from this level. The South American international is fully aware of this. In the absence of an obvious solution, Danilo Pereira and Milan Skriniar also have their say. Their physical qualities and their experience on the European scene are assets on which the Spanish coach could rely in five days against BVB. Whatever happens, each of his applicants will have to raise his level to try to forget the absence of Lucas Hernandez.
