Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 07:59• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 08:10

Maikel Kieftenbeld may have suffered a serious knee injury during his return to the Eredivisie. The midfielder unfortunately collided with substitute Sávio in the 4-1 lost away game against PSV on Saturday evening and immediately grabbed his knee. Earlier in the game, the midfielder was already involved in an extremely clumsy own goal. In an attempt to clear the ball, Kieftenbeld shot against his own standing leg for the 2-0.

As if the evening wasn’t disappointing enough with an own goal and a good beating, disaster struck again in the last minute of stoppage time for Kieftenbeld. Substitute Sávio dribbled in an eager attempt to aim something at the FC Emmen midfielder, after which Kieftenbeld was earlier at the ball and saw the Brazilian fall against him. The inspector immediately grabbed his knee, all the more because he had been in the rag basket before.

“That doesn’t look good”, trainer Dick Lukkien followed ESPN ahead of things. “Of course we have to wait and see, but the first reports are that he is suffering from his knee. That would be a much bigger downer. It is very annoying.” Research must show exactly how serious the damage is. It is not the first time that Kieftenbeld has seriously injured his knee. In the spring of 2019, while playing for Birmingham City, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee and awaited a nine-month rehabilitation.

Kieftenbeld’s serious injury was a sad end to an already gloomy evening for the PhD student. Emmen did not have to count on a stunt in Eindhoven for a moment and after an hour faced a 4-0 deficit. Ole Romeny did something back with a nice hit from the spin, but that was only for the statistics. Due to the defeat, Emmen is currently the last in the Eredivisie behind SC Cambuur and Fortuna Sittard, who also lost their matches.