Konstantinos Karetsas left Berlin on crutches on Saturday evening. By Monday, Dortmund had put a name to the damage: ligaments in the foot, several weeks on the sidelines, and a second injury-enforced absence in the opening weeks of a season that was meant to showcase one of the Bundesliga’s biggest summer buys.
Managing director for sport Lars Ricken confirmed the diagnosis on Monday, and admitted the club had braced for something more serious when they saw the reaction of Karetsas’s team-mates on the pitch.
“That is frustrating, of course, but we initially expected worse after seeing his team-mates’ reactions.”
“Kos has a ligament injury in his foot. He will not travel to Baku and will not be able to play against Frankfurt on Saturday either.”
Read also: Drove pickup into a youth soccer game and killed two: driver walks free
Karetsas had only been on the pitch for a few minutes when he went down. He came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute of Saturday’s goalless draw at Union Berlin, twisted his ankle shortly afterwards, was carried off and later seen leaving the Alte Försterei on crutches.
A second setback in two months
The ankle damage is the second time this season Dortmund have had to pull Karetsas out of their plans. In September he collapsed with circulatory problems during a Champions League match against Villarreal and was taken to hospital, an incident that cast a long shadow over his return.
Head coach Niko Kovač, who signed a new contract through 2029 earlier this month, had already sounded cautious about the Greek international before the Union trip.
“I’m watching the lad, and he’s not yet where he was before,” Kovač said, adding that the memory of the Villarreal collapse was still part of the picture around Karetsas’s recovery.
Return pencilled in for the international break
Dortmund fly out for the Champions League tie away to Sabah FK in Baku on Tuesday without their most expensive summer signing, and Karetsas will also sit out the home game against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. German reporting points to a return no earlier than the international break in mid-November.
Sporting director Ole Book was blunter than Ricken when asked immediately after the Union game, before any scan had been read.
“Let’s hope it’s not too serious. At the moment, I don’t feel good about it.”
The €30m fee Dortmund paid Genk in the summer made Karetsas one of the headline signings of the Bundesliga window. He has yet to put together a sustained run in the team: two injury episodes in roughly two months, the first a health scare, the second a straight footballing injury, have left Kovač without one of his most-watched new players for the start of the Champions League league phase.
Read also: Archer born without arms matches the compound para archery world record in Nagoya
The next scan will determine exactly when he is back in training. The club has not set a return date beyond ruling him out of the two matches named by Ricken.
Read also: Real Madrid legend loses patience with ongoing controversy: ‘I am extremely tired of all this’
