Espanyol will be without one of their key players for the rest of the season, after Javi Puado was ruled out. The left-sided forward was a talisman for Los Pericos last season in their survival bid , but has been sidelined for much of this campaign.
Puado has played just 10 matches and 678 minutes this season, missing three months through an injury to his meniscus. Returning to fitness for the Catalan derby at the start of January, tragically he has gone down again.
As reported by Diario AS , Puado will be out of action for the rest of the season. Playing just four minutes against Levante last weekend, he came on and had to be taken off again. He has been diagnosed with a torn cruciate ligament, and as such, will miss the remainder of the year. Most cruciate ligament injuries take around seven to nine months to recover from.
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Los Pericos will look to go into the transfer market to replace Puado. It was revealed by Javier de Haro, as quoted by El Portal Blanquiazul, that Espanyol were working on a deal to bring back former academy forward Ferran Jutgla, who returned to La Liga this past summer . However MD say that Celta have ruled out an exit for Jutgla, who they feel is an important part of their squad.
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It seems their attention may have shifted to another former Barcelona player in Angel Alarcon. Matteo Moretto reports that Espanyol have opened talks with Porto for Alarcon, who would be a direct replacement on the left side. Alarcon joined Porto 18 months ago, but has made just six first team appearances, and has the same amount of time remaining on his contract. The 21-year-old will no doubt be keen for more game time than the 216 minutes he has had in Porto's senior side.
