Newcastle United's Spanish international striker Albert Luque, faces at least two months out of action, according to the English Premier League club, after rupturing his hamstring in his team's 1-1 draw at Fulham last Saturday.

The 27-year-old, who joined United for 9.5 million pounds ($17.33 million) from Deportivo Coruna last month, was carried off on a stretcher 10 minutes before half time. The club's medical team immediately feared the worst and sent the player straight to hospital for X-Rays of his injuries, which will definitely rule him out of Spain's next two qualifiers, and possibly out of the World Cup finals in Germany, depending on the full extent of his injury, and the commensurate recovery period.

Already struggling to qualify from their group, this is the last thing that the under pressure Spaniards need in the run up to their vital qualification matches.

It's not just Spain experiencing such difficulties. Danish International defender Martin Laursen has also been ruled out of the qualifiers, and possibly for the rest of the season, in his case, because of a knee injury.

The English Premier league club Aston Villa, confirmed that 28 year old Laursen had surgery in the United States on Wednesday in a bid to cure the problem. His club boss David O'Leary said "I have spoken to our physio Alan Smith and he has confirmed we will not see Martin in action again this season." This will come as an extreme blow to a Danish side still on a high after beating England 4-1.

However,despite the negative English press coverage, it was actually only a friendly! Laursen has been a constant fixture in the Danish team, and his contribution to their World Cup campaign will be surely missed.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

delicious | digg | google | yahoo | technorati