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Portugal have been suffered a major blow ahead of FIFA World Cup 2022 as their winger Pedro Neto is likely to miss the highly anticipated tournament due to an ankle injury. The 22-year-old sustained the injury in the first half of Wolves' 0-2 league defeat away by West Ham United last weekend.
Wolverhampton Wanderers winger was forced off in the first half of last weekend's Premier League defeat at West Ham after suffering the injury and specialists have decided he needs to go under the knife. A statement released by Wolves read, "Pedro picked up an ankle injury against West Ham on Saturday where he strained the lateral ligaments."
The statement further informed that evaluation of the injury and a specialist opinion helped in understanding the gravity of the injury. "After receiving lot of advice from medical experts we have concluded that Pedro needs to undergo surgery. This means that, unfortunately, he will not be fit for the upcoming World Cup," added the statement.
Neto had made three appearances for Portugal and recently missed the Nations League game despite being in the squad. Wanderers were already without a manager following Sunday's sacking of Bruno Lage and fresh reports of Neto's absence from the squad has added more woes to the World Cup campaign.
According to reports, Under-18 & Under-21 bosses Steve Davis and James Collins will take charge of the team this weekend.
"He's had so much bad luck already with previous injuries. We're all devastated from him as a group. He's got good support around him so we will look after him and make sure he comes back stronger," Davis was quoted.
Meanwhile, Raul Jimenez and Hwang Hee-chan are both sidelined with groin problems while summer signing Sasa Kalajdzic suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury on his debut. The much-awaited FIFA World Cup is all set to take place from 20 November to 18 December in Qatar.