Michu may need ankle surgery

Another week, another felled attacker. Well, this one was already out, but now it looks as though he's going to be out longer than anticipated.

According to reports originating from today's newspaper edition of Corriere dello Sport, Michu is still having problems with his ankle and is likely to go under the knife to try to correct the problem. Michu's ankle has kept him out since Napoli's match against Young Boys in Switzerland at the end of October, and apparently it is simply not responding to treatment by Napoli's medical staff.

That's lead them to the conclusion that a surgery may be necessary to correct the problem, once further evaluations have been made to determine the exact nature of the surgery needed. While obviously we don't know yet how much more time he'll be out for, but it'll almost certainly be a minimum of six weeks post-op based on typical ankle surgeries.

This will be the second time in eleven months that Michu has had surgery on his right ankle. He needed surgery last December after problems with his ankle had plagued him for most of the season so far, leaving him a shell of the player he'd been the year before. Unfortunately, the surgery didn't seem to do Michu a lot of good, as he wasn't much better after returning to fitness.

Hopefully this round works out better. While Michu hasn't played much (just 240 minutes across six matches), he still adds valuable depth behind Marek Hamsik and Gonzalo Higuain that's especially crucial right now with Lorenzo Insigne out and Dries Mertens' status currently up in the air. Getting Michu healthy and playing well is important, no matter what it takes.