Tag: Belgium

De Bruyne faces up to six weeks out

de Bruyne in action for Belgium

When Manchester City fans saw the discomfort their impressive midfielder Kevin de Bruyne was in during their 3-1 victory over Everton on Wednesday night, they had every right to assume the worst. Thankfully, though, the injury is not as bad as first feared.

The Belgian was taken off on a stretcher with his right knee fully strapped up after having scored the second goal and set up the third for his side on their way to winning the second leg on aggregate, securing a Wembley day out with Liverpool in the Capital One cup final.

The injury happened in injury time, and some had thought it may see de Bruyne out for the remainder of the season. But since then it has been announce he may only be missing for up to six weeks.

When speaking to Sky, de Bruyne’s agent Patrick de Koster said his client would work hard to come back stronger.

“Kevin told me the only thing he can do is work hard and come back.

“Kevin is sad. His dream is to always be playing football. He will miss games like the League Cup final and in the Champions League, which are important.”

Despite helping his side make it to Wembley, de Bruyne is almost certainly going to miss the final with Liverpool on February 28th.

The injury was the only downer on a big night for City, but manager Manuel Pellegrini is optimistic he’ll have de Bruyne back before the end of the campaign.

“We’ll see how important the damage is. It’s not the cruciate ligament.

“The doctor thinks, but he cannot be sure, that it’s a problem in his medial ligament.”

The good news for City fans is they are being seen by the bookies as the favourite going into the match with Liverpool. This guide to online sports betting available at online-betting.me.uk will have all of the relevant information ahead of the big tie at the end of February.

Everton keeper Joel Robles tried to lift the injured de Bruyne repeatedly as he lay injured on the ground, but has since taken to social media to apologise to the Belgian.

Davis cup final to be held on clay in Ghent

Belgium have today confirmed that the already eagerly awaited final for the Davis cup against Great Britain will be at the Flanders Expo, a 13,000 capacity stadium, with the surface also being confirmed as clay.

Britain made history this week as they reached their first Davis cup final in over 37 years, beating Australia to get to this stage, with the Brits being impressively led by captain and world number 3 Andy Murray.

There may problems with the proposed dates for the final, as officials told of the final being played from 27-29 November. Murray would have been participating in the World Tour Finals until November 22nd, leaving him with just five days for his body to recover before he headed to Belgium.

Murray told the press today he would need a substantial amount of time to let his body recover and to deal with the transition from hard court to clay.

“If you reach the final and play on the Sunday you also need to take time off – you can’t just play five matches against the best players in the world and then not take any days off.”

Despite the potential fixture meaning he may need to miss one of the big tournaments, the Scot is clearly happy to hear that the surface is on clay, as he tweeted:

“So Ghent on the clay for the Davis Cup final – very pumped! Think clay is a good surface for us.”

Belgium were handed the advantage of playing in front of their own nation due to the rotation policy the Davis cup instills, meaning that nations alternate hosting every time they face each other, and with Britain having last hosted the two nations in Glasgow in 2012, it meant it was Belgium’s turn. Belgium won that year convincingly with a tally of four wins to GB’s one.