Valencia lose Márquez to groin strain
Alfonso Márquez will miss five Valencia matches with a groin strain, with the medical staff setting his return for around 7 November.
In my day a winger with a bad groin was patched up with a strong cup of coffee and told to run it off. Times change, and so do the medical rooms. What does not change is the hole a player leaves when he is carried out of the side, and Valencia have a sizeable one now.
Alfonso Márquez, the Uruguayan left midfielder, has a groin strain, picked up on 12 October. The club's medical staff put his absence at about 26 days, which would have him back around 7 November. Nobody at the club is calling that a promise; it is an estimate, and groins have a way of writing their own timetable.
In the meantime Valencia lose their left-sided man for five matches. He had made seven appearances this season and scored once, and his value is not only in that goal. The left flank is where Los Ches build their attacks, and Márquez has been the one carrying the ball there since he arrived from Real Betis in the summer of 2060 for £43.0m. He knows the league, he knows the crowd, and he knows how to hold a lead in the closing minutes. Five games is a long stretch to fill that gap with somebody learning on the job.
Márquez is 32 now, and the body keeps its own accounts. He has given Valencia plenty since that transfer, and he will be needed again once the groin settles. Supporters will count the days, as they always do, and hope the medical staff's reckoning is a cautious one.
Strains like this are as old as the game itself. What matters is the response. Valencia must find width without their left-sided regular, and do it quickly.