Troyes left Angers beaten and bruised on Saturday night, with the 2-0 Ligue 1 defeat overshadowed by a worrying injury to teenage forward Yacouba Koné.
The 19-year-old Ivorian lasted only five minutes after coming on in the second half. He was taken from the pitch on a stretcher, leaving coach Stéphane Dumont fearing a long absence.
Quick facts
- Troyes lost 2-0 away to Angers in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
- Yacouba Koné entered in the 73rd minute for Jérémy Le Douaron.
- The 19-year-old was stretchered off in the 78th minute.
- Kandet Diawara replaced him.
- Dumont fears a possible anterior cruciate ligament rupture in Koné’s knee.
- Koné joined Troyes in February.
Dumont did not confirm the precise diagnosis after the match, but his first assessment was bleak. The Troyes manager said the problem was in Koné’s knee and suggested it could be the injury no footballer wants to suffer.
“We have lost a player as well as the match,” Dumont said. “We are quite pessimistic, and it is a hard blow for us.”
An anterior cruciate ligament tear would keep Koné out for many months, a particularly cruel prospect for a young attacker still settling after his February arrival at the club.
For Troyes, the evening in Angers therefore brought more than a damaging league defeat. It also raised immediate concern over the fitness of one of their youngest attacking options.
