Fernando Nino of Villarreal CF and Wesley Fofana of Leicester City challenge for a header during the Pre Season Friendly fixture between Leicester City and Villarreal at The King Power Stadium on August 4, 2021 in Leicester, England.
Villarreal forward Fernando Nino has apologised to Wesley Fofana after a wild tackle on the Leicester defender left him with a broken leg in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday.
With the Foxes 3-0 up in the second half at the King Power Stadium, 20-year-old Nino went with a wild scissor challenge on Fofana's left leg as the centre back went to collect the ball on the halfway line, causing the Frenchman to crumple to the ground in agony.
After a period of treatment on the field, Fofana was stretchered off the pitch to applause and taken to hospital in an ambulance.
Nino was not penalised for the challenge and went on to score as last season's Europa League winners made it 3-2 before Brendan Rodgers' men held on.
Nino's post read: “I am writing to publicly apologise, having done so privately with him, to Wesley Fofana for what happened last night at the King Power Stadium in Leicester.
“At no time was it my intention to harm him, as unfortunately happened. I sincerely hope that he has a speedy recovery and can return to the pitch as soon as possible to continue showing that he is a footballer of the highest level.”
Rodgers is now in the hunt for a new centre back as Fofana prepares for a lengthy spell on the sidelines, with the Northern Irishman saying: “We are definitely light in that area. Filip Benkovic has done well in pre-season and Daniel Amartey can play there but we are light and we will have to look at it, for sure.
“There are certainly people that are identified, a small list of players we would look at. We will see what happens.
On Fofana's injury, he said: “It is a horrendous injury for us and we're obviously devastated for him because he's a top-class young player, so he's going to be a huge loss for us. Our medical team were fantastic on the night.
“Our staff at the club and all the people in the hospital really looked after him.”
Leicester face a Manchester City side in the Community Shield on Saturday boosted by the arrival of Jack Grealish for a British record £100million.
Their opener in the Premier League is on August 14 at home to Bruno Lage's Wolves.
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