Friday, October 22, 2021 at 06:48• Yanick Vos

PSV will have to do without Noni Madueke in the top match against Ajax on Sunday, while Cody Gakpo is a big question mark. The attackers were injured on Thursday evening in the Europa League match with AS Monaco (1-2 loss). Trainer Roger Schmidt expressed his expectation afterwards that Madueke will not be recovered in time for the squatter in the Johan Cruijff ArenA, which is scheduled for Sunday at 4.45 pm.

Madueke grabbed his hamstring in the second half and was injured ten minutes after the break, Gakpo followed a few minutes later. “It’s only two days until Sunday,” Schmidt expressed his concerns in conversation with ESPN. “Noni has a muscle injury so I don’t expect to be able to play on Sunday. With Cody we have to wait and see, I don’t know how bad it is.” The injuries of the two attackers give PSV an extra downer, which got 1-2 just before time in front of its own audience and left the field without points.

Gakpo is struggling with an ankle injury. The the Dutch international entered a header in his own half and ended up unlucky. “I landed wrong with my ankle,” said the 22-year-old PSV attacker. “It did hurt me. It didn’t really go away. I tried to walk out, but that didn’t really work. Then you have to go to the side.” The question is whether Gakpo has recovered in time for Sunday’s Eredivisie squatter against Ajax. “I can’t say anything about that yet. We still have to deal with and assess it,” said the wing striker, who scored PSV’s only goal. “Hopefully it’s all going to be okay.”

Jan Joost van Gangelen went into the studio of ESPN then his own conclusion: “I say: it’s not that bad. He will just participate next Sunday,” said the presenter. Ajax already played in the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund (4-0 win) on Tuesday and therefore has two days longer than PSV to recover towards Sunday’s game.