Maxi Romero continues to struggle with his fitness. The attacker, who was picked up by PSV for ten million euros from Vélez Sarsfield in 2018, will be out of circulation for two to three weeks, Roger Schmidt announced the day before the meeting with Sturm Graz in the Europa League. The infirmary of the Eindhoven club has been bulging for weeks. “We are indeed missing a lot of players, but in a difficult time it is up to the team to show spirit,” Schmidt emphasized at a press conference.
Romero sustained the injury on Sunday and is therefore stuck at nine games for PSV for the time being. “We expect him back before Christmas,” said Schmidt. “It is indeed a muscle problem and it is annoying for him and us. We showed on Saturday that we have a good group and we will also make our choices tomorrow”, he referred to the home game against Vitesse (2-0).
Precisely because of the injury of Eran Zahavi, there were opportunities for Romero for more playing time. Since his return after a serious knee injury, the attacker from Argentina had to make do with substitutes for the main squad and mainly gained match rhythm at Young PSV in the Kitchen Champion Division. Noni Madueke, Cody Gakpo, Zahavi, Ryan Thomas and Jordan Teze are still injured and Philipp Max is still in quarantine due to corona.
Schmidt will therefore have to do a lot of puzzling in his starting eleven. “We can beat anyone”, Schmidt was bluntly told by the NOS quoted. “We know that. But we also know that it will never be easy. Not even against Sturm Graz and later Real Sociedad, but of course we can win those two games.”
PSV still has the wintering at the second European level in their own hands, but then it has to take the full loot in the last two group matches. A game against Real Sociedad awaits on December 9. The eight group winners qualify directly for the eighth finals. The numbers two are matched in an intermediate round with a number three from the Champions League group stage. The winners of those diptychs advance to the eighth finals of the Europa League.