Bafana Bafana and St. Louis City star Njabulo Blom has been ruled out for 4-6 weeks after being stretchered off with a suspected groin injury.
The recent injury comes just two weeks after Blom returned to action flowing a brief bout of Covid-19 that also ruled him out of a recent Bafana Bafana squad.
Blom returned to action for City and played 13 minutes as his side thrashed Real Salt Lake. Blom got another 30 minutes in the tank as City lost to Bongokuhle Hlongwane’s Minnesota a week later and had to be stretched off with a groin injury after 14 minutes sustaining a groin injury against Seattle.
The injury is expected to keep him out of action for approximately five to six weeks.
"It’s a real bummer," City SC head coach Bradley Carnell told the St. Louis Post Dispatch this week.
"We tried to progress him minutes-wise. We were getting pressure from the South African market: Why don’t we see Blom anymore? Blom had an illness, so we had to try to get him back and it’s not so easy to recover from those moments.
"We knew we could progress maybe 30 minutes with him, which was the plan, and unfortunately a few minutes later, the plan is derailed and had ramifications on how that game played out."
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Blom joined City at the start if the season as one of the most highly-rated defensive midfielders in South Africa but has a difficult start to life in the US, starting just one game in the seven he has featured in.
Factors such as delays in getting paperwork, a late pre-season, illness and now injury have all contributed to the 23-year-old's slow start.
Meanwhile, after a blistering start to the season that saw Carnell collect four wins from four, City have lost their last two matches and will be looking to get back to winning ways when they host Cincinnati on Sunday.
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