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| Yashir Pinto via Instagram: |
The injury that forced Yashir Pinto off the pitch in the 24th minute of Perak FA’s Malaysia Super League loss to Melaka United has been revealed to be an Achilles rupture.
The Santiago-born forward had been a key figure this season for his club. Playing across the forward line, Pinto scored five league goals (a team high) and added another in the Malaysia Cup.
Following his diagnosis, Pinto flew to Chile for surgery on his ruptured tendon, which was completed successfully yesterday.
The estimated timeline for his recovery is around six months- ruling him out of Palestine’s Asian Cup qualifiers against Bhutan on October 10th and Maldives on November 14th.
A big part of the national team, Pinto has started in every competitive match under Abdel Nasser Barakat since his debut in March 2016.
There is an immediate doubt on who will fill in for the striker against Bhutan. Swedish based duo Mahmoud Eid and Ahmad Awad are struggling for fitness while Ahli Amman’s Mahmoud Wadi has been prevented from traveling to the West Bank by Israel’s occupying forces.
Matías Jadue, who has yet to be registered by Port FC and has yet to feature for the Thai side, is one of the favorites to start against Bhutan. Palestine could also avail of the services of Hilal Al-Quds’s Khaled Salem.
