Injured Bissouma could miss the start of the 2019-20 season

Well, this is cracking news to start the week with. Yves Bissouma has been ruled out of the African Cup of Nations and could miss the start of the 2019-20 Premier League season.

Mali coach Mohamed Magassouba told Footmali: “Yves has a shoulder fracture. His club has officially approached the Eagles doctor to express his intention to have him treated during the holidays.”

“There has also been a lot of interaction between the national team doctor and his doctor. The player will receive treatment at his club, and will not be available for the Nations Cup with us.”

We’re presuming that “the holidays” actually means the summer and Google translate has got itself a little confused. Either way, the news comes as a huge blow to both Mail and the Albion, even if nobody is sure of the exact extent of the problem.

According to Sky Sports, the injury isn’t actually a fractured shoulder but in fact an historic injury that now requires surgery.

Sky are also the news outlet reporting that as result of Bissouma going under the knife, he will be ruled out for the opening weeks of the new campaign.

Where this historic injury might have come from is something of a mystery. Bissouma remained pretty much injury free during his debut season in England following his £15 summer move from LOSC Lille.

He missed the Liverpool and Manchester United matches in January with a hip problem and he wasn’t in the squad for the home match with Cardiff City or the trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers in April.

No reason was given for his absence at the time, although there were strong rumours that he’d been involved in a training ground altercation with Beram Kayal as the Albion’s form and morale dived off a cliff in the final weeks of the season.

Interestingly though, Footmali state that Bissouma wasn’t involved in Mali’s 3-0 win over South Sudan back in the March international break for the very same reason – a shoulder injury being cited for his absence by Magassouba.

It looks as though Bissouma may have picked up the injury at some point before the end of March but has simply been playing through the problem until the point where it became so bad that surgery became unavoidable. Which is where we’re at now.

If, however, Sky have the story wrong and it is in fact just a fractured shoulder that doesn’t require an operation as Magassouba said, then according to the NHS it could be fully healed in six to eight weeks.

Should it take the maximum of that time frame, then Bissouma may be back in action by the end of July. The Premier League season kicks off on the weekend of August 10th.

Were that to be the case, then there is the possibility that he yet make it into Graham Potter’s first squad as Brighton manager.

Fingers crossed he does; the prospect of a manager like Potter who knows how to get the best out of precarious young talents working with a raw talent like Bissouma is a tantalising one and could be crucial to the Albion’s chances of getting their new era off to a flyer.