Knee ligament damage rules out defender for 6 months

Wolfsburg’s new signing Ricardo Costa has suffered a major blow in the build-up to the new Bundesliga season with the news that he will be out for six months with a knee injury.

The 4m euro summer signing from Porto tore cruciate knee ligaments during the first half of his side’s 4-0 win over FV Würzburg in the German League Cup this weekend, and scans have confirmed that the 26-year-old will not return until next year.

“He will not play again this year” said Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath, who had hoped that Costa would fill the void left by the departure of influential Dutch centre-half Kevin Hofland.

“That is hard, particularly for him. We will have to see how it goes. We will need to consider whether we can cover his absence internally.”

The Portuguese defender had told Maisfutebol on Sunday evening that he was feeling better and was hopeful that the injury was not as serious as first feared.

However, today’s news will come as a major setback for the defender, who was hoping to use his move to Germany to catch the eye of Portugal boss Luiz Felipe Scolari.

August 6, 2007