Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has confirmed that Evan Ferguson’s knee injury was not sustained in Brighton’s 3-1 defeat of Newcastle United last Saturday.
After Ferguson scored his first professional hat-trick at the Amex, he appeared to be forced off following a challenge by Bruno Guimarães in the 79th minute. But the Brazilian midfielder merely exacerbated a patellar tendon issue the 18-year-old has been carrying for an unknown period of time.
“I don’t think it was well reported as an injury in the game, in the challenge, that’s not the case actually,” said Kenny, appearing to contradict the FAI’s injury update last Tuesday morning.
“It is one that he’s been playing on, the patellar tendon injury, a knee injury that he has had some pain in.
“So, he just felt after he did it that it was too sore and he couldn’t play on it. When he came off he just felt too sore and it was too sore to participate in [Irish camp]. You have to respect that. It was obviously too sore and he was in too much pain.”
When Kenny was asked if the issue went back to Ferguson’s injury issues from last season, he replied, “No, no. I don’t think so.”
France manager Didier Deschamps noted that Ferguson’s absence hinders Irish chances of getting a positive result from Thursday night’s European Championships qualifier in Paris.
“I think he is a very good player,” said Deschamps. “He has shown really good quality with his own club. I know that he has less appearances for his country than his club. He has so many attacking qualities and he is going to be a very efficient player who will get better in the future. It is an important loss for the team of Ireland for this game.”
