Brentford manager Thomas Frank has said in-form forward Yoane Wissa is likely to be out until November with an injury he sustained in a heavy challenge from Manchester City’s Mateo Kovacic.
Wissa scored the fastest goal of the Premier League season so far to give the Bees a surprise lead inside the first minute at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, only for his run of three goals and one assist in the top flight to come to an abrupt end when he was forced off at half-time.
“Wissa is, unfortunately, not good news,” said Frank, who described how Kovacic’s “reckless tackle” had been “just going through the man from behind” after Brentford’s 2-1 defeat.
“It looks like an injury that will be a couple of months. It’s very frustrating. We talked about our many injuries last year. I hope I don’t have to talk too much about it this year – I maybe already have.”
BREAKING: Brentford striker Yoane Wissa out for two months with ankle injury 🚨 pic.twitter.com/o1NFRpS7FE
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 16, 2024
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Yoane Wissa injury
“Wissa had a very good season last year and he has started the season very well with three goals in four games,” added Frank.
“That’s a very good number. He’s just been very important for us and that’s going to leave a hole. But, again, I will find a solution.”
Kovacic was booked by referee Darren Bond, with Frank stopping short of saying the midfielder should have been sent off.
Our fastest ever @premierleague goal ⚡️
Wissa with number 3 for the season 🇨🇩🔥 pic.twitter.com/3l3e8ziH6L
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) September 14, 2024
Brentford injuries
Brentford lost the fifth-most days of availability across all of their players to injury during 2023-24, according to Premier Injuries figures.
Left-back Rico Henry suffered the third-longest absence of any player in the division and is yet to return from the knee injury he sustained last September, while Bryan Mbeumo, Kevin Schade, Aaron Hickey, Josh DaSilva and Mikkel Damsgaard were among the other players ruled out for parts of the campaign.
Midfielder Mathias Jensen and forward Gustavo Nunes have been among their injury list since the start of the season, and £30 million club-record signing Igor Thiago is not expected to return until the end of 2024 following surgery on a knee injury he collected during pre-season.
Igor Thiago ‘unlucky’
“We were unlucky with Igor, unlucky with Hickey,” rued Frank. “We then had two contact injuries with Mathias Jensen and Yoane Wissa, so that’s very frustrating.
“[Wissa] will leave a big hole. Everybody was saying we bought Igor Thiago to replace Ivan [Toney] – but we still had Wissa; we bought Igor Thiago to build the squad and provide competition in the squad.”
Brentford are ninth after an encouraging start to the season, beating Crystal Palace and Southampton at home and losing at City and Liverpool.
