Manchester United's Daley Blind facing SIX weeks of rehab after knee ligament tear

 

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Defensive woes: LVG lost De Gea and Blind to injury at the weekend
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Standard Sport17 November 2014

Manchester United appear to have been dealt another injury blow after Daley Blind suffered suspected torn knee ligaments while playing for Holland on Sunday night.

The versatile Blind hobbled out of the game in Amsterdam against Latvia, which Holland would go on to win 6-0, after 20 minutes following a fall in a challenge with Eduards Visnakovs.

Blind later said on his Instagram account: "I'm proud of my 25 games for the Dutch national team, but I'm so gutted with my injury... I'll stay positive en will come back stronger! Nevertheless a great win, 6-0!"

National coach Guus Hiddink suggested Blind could be facing up to six weeks of rehabilitation.

"It doesn't look good. It is his medial ligament. It could be a strain but also be a tear, so that is a big blow," Hiddink said, reported on Dutch website Voetbal International.

United manager Louis van Gaal, who guided the Netherlands to the World Cup semi-finals in the summer before taking up his post at Old Trafford, has been left counting the cost of the international break.

England midfielder Michael Carrick was sent home ahead of the qualifier against Slovenia because of a groin problem, while goalkeeper David De Gea dislocated his finger while training with Spain.

Blind, signed from Ajax for £14million on transfer deadline day, had been deployed as an emergency central defender by Van Gaal following injuries to Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo and the suspension of Chris Smalling.

United, who are currently seventh in the Barclays Premier League, travel to Arsenal on Saturday for the televised 5:30pm kick-off.

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