Thomas Vermaelen

Serie A side AS Roma are suffering an injury crisis that is gradually worsening as key players keep getting sidelined.

The list has been growing gradually. Defender Emerson Palmieri reportedly picked up a calf injury after the 0-0 draw against Empoli on Sunday.

The Brazil international joined this summer from his native country where he played for Santos. The player, currently on a loan deal, has made four starts for the Giallorossi since joining. He was fine in the first half but had to be substituted after the injury in the 53rd minute. He was set to play in the Europa League clash with Austria Wien. The injury would force him to sit the game out. The club says they expect him to make a return when they play Bologna in the Serie A.

Aside Palmieri, Kostas Manolas has been sidelined for two weeks, as he is set to undergo nasal surgery. The defender broke his nose during training. The club confirmed that he would undergo surgery for the injury on Monday. He adds to the list of injured defenders Roma have to seek short-term replacement.

Former Barcelona player Thomas Vermaelen and Alessandro Florenzi remain sidelined, sending a worrying sign to fans. There are reports that Vermaelen would return to his parent club due to his injury concerns. The player Roma this summer but has been absent since the beginning of September. The former Gunner player has featured just twice in the Serie A thus season.

Spanish news outlet Don Balon claim the club will turn down an opportunity to buy him on a permanent basis. The player is already surplus to requirements at the Catalan side. His contract is valid until 2019, hence it poses a problem for the La Liga champions as they would have to find a club for the Belgian defender.

Roma veteran Franscesco Totti celebrated his 40th year old birthday this week.

Just after the celebration, Totti inspired Roma to a 4-0 victory over Astra in the Europa League. Totti was exceptional in the game, providing three assists.

The Giallorossi have started the campaign on a shaky note. They crashed out of the UEFA Champions League play offs after they played a 1-1 draw with Viktoria Plzen. Roma have also lost the last two of three Serie A games. Totti was in the staring squad despite crossing over the age of 40. Daniele De Rossi and Eemrson Palmieri were not available as they were suspended with Mario Rui. Antonio Rudiger’s injury ensured he missed the match. Former Arsenal and Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen was out injured as well.

Roma have been concerned with Vermaelen’s injury concerns. The 30-year old Belgian has been diagnosed with athletic pubalgia. Since returning from international team duty in September, he has missed five major games for Roma. There is no time frame for his recovery yet as there are various types, coach Luciano Spaletti said. The club doctors blamed their counterparts in the Belgium national team who forced him to play by giving him pain-killing injections. Reports say he is not able to even run, and it seems as if the injuries might force him to retire early.

Totti’s free kick helped Kevin Strootman get the first goal. He also provided assists to Mohammed Salah. Juan Manuel Iturbe but they failed to convert them. Totti was involved in goals from Federico Fazio. After the break, Diego Perotti forced Fabricio to cause an own goal in the 47th minute. Salah rounded up the 4-0 score line when he scored in the 55th minute. The manager said he was happy with the team’s performance after the game.

Former Arsenal and current Barcelona player Thomas Vermaelen spoke highly of his start so far at season-long loan deal to Italy to play for AS Roma.

He spoke at a press conference saying he thinks the atmosphere in the dressing room is good and the players gave him a warm welcome. He admitted that he knew some of the faces and that helped him in settling in.

“Training is going well, I am very impressed with the quality this team has and the game we played. So far it’s going very well. I spoke to [coach Luciano Spalletti] a few times. I think it’s very important to get to know him and how he wants the team to play. He wants to build from the back, play with the ball on the floor, which I’m used to, and as the months progress I’ll get to know him better and better,” Vermaelen added.

The Belgian started his career back in his native playing for Beerschot then he went professional with Ajax. He was loaned out eventually to RKC Waalwijk then he returned and impressed. He moved to England to feature for Arsenal in 2009, getting starting shirt until his departure to join the Spanish giants in 2014. He couldn’t break into the first team, and injury disrupted his plans forcing his loan to AS Roma this summer.

Vermaelen appeared to be settling well into the new team as he hopes to revive his dying career. He appears to be comfortable with the style of play as it is similar to what he played at the Emirates for years and at Camp Nou for Barcelona. The 30-year old has no choice than to prove himself and hope he is retained when the loan expires as Barca got new defenders this summer.

Belgium may be considered as one of the dark horses for the Euro 2016, but only if they have the best players like Eden Hazard and Tomas Vermaelen fit and ready to play.

Both these players have been suffering from several injury problems during the 2015-16 campaign. Even though Hazard has shown signs of returning to his best in the last few weeks for Chelsea, his presence still remains doubtful owing to the multiple injury concerns. Thomas Vermaelen, meanwhile, has been a very injury prone player in the last two years so much so that Barcelona are now reportedly considering the sale of the player.

Vermaelen, though, has been included in the Belgium squad for the tournament. Due to the impressive talent within the squad, Belgium are rated as one of the dark horses for winning the title. However, their opening match is against former world champions Italy and it could be a stern test for the team. A big worry for Belgian manager Marc Wilmots is the availability of Hazard and Vermaelen for the opening game. While Chelsea winger Hazard had to go out of training with a little limp, Vermaelen has been considered as a major doubt for the game throughout the week.

Wilmots, though, claimed that he remains confident that both players will be able to feature against Italy.”Thomas has done well in training over the last days and is completely ready for the battle. He has no more problems.I don’t think it is serious [Hazard injury], just a knock,” said the Belgian manager. Belgium are in the group that contains Italy, Sweden, and Republic of Ireland. This is widely seen as the group of death since all teams can potentially reach the next stage of the competition. Ireland and Sweden take on each other in their opening matches.

Former Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen says that he is not reading too much into the transfer rumours linking him with a return to the Premier league since his only concentration now is the Euro 2016 with the Belgian national team.

The Belgian international moved to Barcelona in the summer of 2014 for a considerable transfer fee of around £ 15 million. However, he has been one of the biggest disappointments for the Catalan club in the recent memory after managing only 11 appearances so far. His time at the club has been curtailed by numerous injuries, but Vermaelen has managed to be successful on a personal front.

Despite having featured very little for the club in the last two seasons, he has already won the La Liga title twice, Copa del Rey twice, Champions League once, Super Cup once, and the FIFA Club World Cup once. Thus, the trophies that he has amassed in the last two years might point out to a great career, but it has largely been as a result of the club being successful while carrying Vermaelen. It is understood that Barcelona are looking forward to part company with their injury prone defender. Signing a stable option will strengthen the squad significantly. Vermaelen has been linked with a move to Liverpool.

“It’s not that I want to leave Barcelona but the last few weeks and months have been a bit disappointing because I haven’t been getting a lot of playing time.It’s not that I’m thinking about leaving at the moment. I’m just focused on my national team.The last couple of weeks and months were a bit disappointing for them but before that they had a great season.I thought they had a big chance to win it this year and hopefully next year they can go on and win it,” said Vermaelen.

While, Luis Enrique has no qualms in accepting that a big percentage of the responsibility, for Atletico Madrid smashing Barcelona out of continental Football, comes down to him, he believes getting nervous and panicky at this moment in time will not solve the problem.

Enrique was outsmarted by Atletico boss Vicente Calderon, who in spite of being behind by a goal at the start of return leg, was more circumspect in his formation and played the waiting game which, Enrique admitted later on, was a surprise to him and his players.

As per Enrique, people will have their own explanations of what has been the problem with Barcelona. There will be loads and loads of opinions coming from everywhere, but, a manager has to address the root of the problem and work on that and he can’t do that without analyzing everything. So, for him to pass a comment immediately, that a particular aspect is responsible for the setback and we could have won if we had not done this and that, is hard, but, what is sure is that there is simply not enough no. of balls put into the net by the team, for whatever reason and that’s something which stops you from winning games.

Also, Enrique stressed repeatedly that there is no point losing the head either from the perspective of the players or the coaching staff because Champions League was not the only tournament Barcelona was contending for. It might have been the most important one yes, but, not the only one. A couple of other tournaments are also there to be won. So, calmness is vital.

Barcelona had actually almost closed the Liga race some time back. They were miles ahead and looked uncatchable. But, two loses successively of late has now opened that tournament as well, bringing Atletico into play.