Arsenal loanee withdraws from internationals with fresh injury | OneFootball

Nuno Tavares has been forced out of the March international break, seemingly picking up a new injury with Lazio.

Photo by Marco Rosi – SS Lazio/Getty Images

Arsenal loan left-back Nuno Tavares was named in the Portugal squad for the international break, but the defender has had to pull out due to injury.

Ahead of Thursday’s game between Portugal and Denmark, the Portuguese national team released a statement (via The Laziali):

“Nuno Tavares has been declared unfit by the Health and Performance Unit for the Nations League Quarter-Finals. The defender is suffering from problems that will prevent him from recovering in time for the match against Denmark.

“Nuno Tavares has returned to his club (Lazio) where he will continue his recovery process.”

Photo by Marco Rosi – SS Lazio/Getty Images

The good news is that Lazio sporting director Angelo Fabiani has reassured the fans that it’s nothing serious. However, he did suggest the problem is a new one, not a reoccurrence of the injury that sidelined Tavares earlier this month.

“All the national teams want their players in training camp, then they carry out the necessary tests,” Fabiani said.

“For Nuno Tavares, they have highlighted a small problem so he he returned to Rome. He wanted to play against Bologna, but he had a fresh issue.”

Tavares missed one game with a muscular injury on March 10th, but he was back in action on March 13th against Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League. It seems he then picked up a new injury before Sunday’s game against Bologna on March 16th.

Photo by Marco Rosi – SS Lazio/Getty Images

Tavares has returned to Lazio for treatment, with the team set to face Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League quarter-finals and to continue to push for Champions League football in Serie A.

The team are currently sixth, two points off the top four, but with the worst goal difference in the top nine following Sunday’s 5-0 defeat to Bologna without Tavares.

Tavares has made 26 appearances for Lazio, who have a purchase clause in the region of £7-7.5m for the Arsenal defender with a sell-on clause worth in excess of 25%.