This one took some delving…
At first we thought it was a rather unfunny joke from a Manchester United fan, or maybe a jealous Chelsea one, but there is some foundation to the Alex Teixeira injury rumours.
The Brazilian attacker Liverpool have made a £24m bid for (via BBC Sport), reportedly pulled his hamstring – with Ian Ayre set to fly out to Florida to discuss terms on the deal.
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The news was broken by Editor in Chief of Russian outlet Sport Express Artur Petrosyan, and sent the internet into overdrive – with BBC Radio Merseyside also publishing the story.
Alex Teixeira pulled his hamstring soon after Liverpool made a bid. This is not a joke. Repeat: this is not a joke.
— Artur Petrosyan (@arturpetrosyan) January 21, 2016
It happened during his last training with Shakhtar in USA a few hours before Ian Ayre got on the plane.
— Artur Petrosyan (@arturpetrosyan) January 21, 2016
Reports that Alex Teixeira has picked up a hamstring injury in training shortly after Liverpool make £24.5m offer #LFC
— BBC Merseyside Sport (@bbcmerseysport) January 21, 2016
However, well followed Brazilian Twitter journalist ‘Selecao Brasileira’ claimed the reports are exaggerated.
Reports about Alex Teixeira having pulled his hamstring right after LFC made an offer are false. The player’s injury is minor, needed rest.
— Seleção Brasileira (@BrazilStats) January 21, 2016
Here at Empire we did some research, and found an interview from Shakhtar’s manager Mircea Lucescu published this morning, which claims that while Teixeira picked up an ‘injury’, he was only being ‘rested’ – which indicates the issue is only very minor.
“Teixeira was injured during yesterday’s morning session. I decided to rest him,” he told the club’s official website.
We can only hope the latter news is correct, as it’d be just Liverpool’s luck if a potentially season changing signing is scuppered because of Jurgen Klopp’s ‘shit word of the year’: hamstring.
Liverpool’s season has been largely decimated by various injuries to that particular muscle. Coutinho, Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel are all currently sidelined with hamstring injuries, and Christian Benteke, Jordon Ibe and even Simon Mignolet have missed matches term with the same problem.
Surely it’s not cursing players simply linked with us now, is it…?