It’s Too Soon For Injured Star – But He Is ‘Progressing Along Nicely’

Matt Ritchie had a minor operation on his injured ankle a week and a half ago. The procedure was just to clean out the ankle that had some ligament damage from a bad Hamza Choudhury tackle at the end of August.

While today’s match is too soon for the 30-year-old, he is getting very close to a return to team training. Steve Bruce gave an update on Ritchie’s condition to the Chronicle yesterday. It seems he is in the Middle East to train in the warm weather but is coming along well:

“Matt is OK. He is progressing along nicely. He is doing warm weather training at the moment in the Middle East. All the reports I am getting back are good.

“He’s working hard and hopefully he will be back at the weekend he will be OK.”

The initial time frame for Ritchie’s return was two months. That appears to be quite accurate even with the recent ankle surgery. We hope this week he can finally be involved in team training.

Next Sunday’s home game against Wolves may be too soon for a match-day squad place. Possibly the following week’s trip to West Ham is a more realistic target date for his return.

We know that he just can’t wait to get back as the Sun’s David Coverdale tweeted this after the Manchester United victory.

This article was originally posted here