AMSTERDAM – Bodø/Glimt right back Zarek Valentin is feared lost for the rest of the Tippeligaen season after suffering a torn left Achilles tendon in training on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old, who went the distance in each of the Norwegian club's first two games, is set for surgery on Thursday. While team doctors will wait until after the operation to set a return target, athletes generally require about six months of recovery for such an injury, along with additional time to regain match fitness.
"He thought someone kicked him down, and that's a bad sign," Bodø/Glimt manager Jan Halvor Halvorsen, a former New York Red Bulls assistant coach, told local daily Avisa Nordland. "Obviously it is upsetting, but there is nothing we can do about it. We just have to build him up again."
Bodø/Glimt have yet to set a hard target date for a return following the Thursday afternoon operation on the defender's torn left Achilles tendon, but he is expected to be out six months.
"They did the job today," Glimt press officer Kent Andre Aagnes told MLSsoccer.com after the surgery. "It went well."
"The best time [in recovery for this particular injury] we ever heard of was three months, but we expect it to take six months. So maybe, maybe he will be back for the last matches – but we don't expect that."
The last round of the Tippeligaen will be played on November 8.
