Manchester City top rated striker, Sergio Aguero has suffered a broken rib in a car crash in the Netherlands, the club’s manager Pep Guardiola confirmed on today.
Aguero sustained the injury after a taxi taking him to an Amsterdam airport following a music concert was involved in an accident on Thursday night.
Guardiola said Aguero will miss the Premier League leaders’ clash at champions Chelsea on Saturday, and is also set to be sidelined for Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers early in October.
British media reports claim Aguero will be out of action for at least two months, but Guardiola did not have an exact time frame for how long his star would spend recovering from the injury.
“The first impression is he has broken a rib but the number of days he will be out, I don’t know,” Guardiola told reporters in Manchester on Friday.
The prolific 29-year-old was due to return to Manchester on Friday morning, with Guardiola insisting he had no problem with Aguero being in Amsterdam on his day off.
“A day off is to be happy,” he said. “I am a trainer who doesn’t want to train every day because they (the players) need to rest, mentally and physically.”
News of the accident first broke when City released a statement that read: “Sergio Aguero will be assessed by club doctors today after being involved in a road accident on Thursday. The City forward was in Holland on his day off and has sustained injuries.”
Amsterdam police spokesman Frans Zuiderhoek told AFP that officers attended an accident in the city at around 11:00pm (2100 GMT) on Thursday after “a taxi-cab hit a lamp-post”.
He could not confirm the identities of the two passengers and the driver, who all asked to remain anonymous.
“No other vehicles were involved,” he told AFP early on Friday, adding that three people in the taxi “have been transferred to hospital for observation… but there were no bad injuries”.
The accident occurred on De Boelelaan street, said Zuiderhoek, not far from the Arena A where Colombian singer Maluma performed on Thursday.
Television images showed a black cab, mounted on the grassy middle of a busy four-lane highway, the front staved in after it apparently ploughed front first into a tall blue-and white striped lamppost.
It was surrounded by at least two ambulances and two police cars.
It is understood Aguero’s accident occurred as he travelled back to the airport to return to Manchester.
Aguero, who has scored 176 goals for the English club, on Thursday posted a picture of himself with Maluma on his official Instagram page.
Aguero’s former club Independiente posted a message of support on Twitter, saying: “Strength and speedy recovery @aguerosergiokun! All @Independiente is with you at this difficult time.”
The striker, who has already scored six times in the Premier League this season, needs only two more goals to become City’s all-time leading scorer and is widely viewed as one of the world’s most feared strikers.
