Roma are increasingly concerned at the on-going injury problems of Thomas Vermaelen, who has been diagnosed with athletic pubalgia.
The 30-year-old defender is on loan from Barcelona, but made only three appearances this season.
He was sent off 41 minutes into his debut, a Champions League play-off with Porto on August 17, and played two full Serie A games against Udinese and Cagliari.
However, the Belgian has been unavailable since returning from international duty in early September, missing five competitive matches.
Roma are increasingly concerned at the on-going injury problems of Thomas Vermaelen, who has been diagnosed with athletic pubalgia.
The 30-year-old defender is on loan from Barcelona, but made only three appearances this season.
He was sent off 41 minutes into his debut, a Champions League play-off with Porto on August 17, and played two full Serie A games against Udinese and Cagliari.
However, the Belgian has been unavailable since returning from international duty in early September, missing five competitive matches.
“It is athletic pubalgia, although there are various different types,” said Coach Luciano Spalletti in yesterday’s Press conference.
“Some inflammations heal in 15 days, others require a long lay-off or need to be dealt with day by day, so we can’t really give a timeframe for his recovery.”
According to Il Tempo newspaper, Vermaelen currently cannot even run and Roma medics blame Belgian doctors for forcing him to play with the use of pain-killing injections.
He has struggled with injuries throughout his career, including an entire year out due to an Achilles tendon issue in 2010-11.