The key facts

  • In the 3rd-round league-phase match of the Champions League between PSG and Barcelona (4:2), both teams lost players to injuries: Ousmane Dembele and Dani Olmo were substituted in the first half.
  • Kvaratskhelia was injured in the 57th minute after a collision with Havi Espart and was substituted in the 59th minute for Maignan Akliouche; two medical staff members escorted him off the pitch.
  • PSG confirmed an ACL tear of the right knee; physiotherapist Angel Villanueva suggested a recovery period of about nine months.

Injury in the match against Barcelona

The 3rd-round league-phase match of the Champions League between PSG and Barcelona (4:2) turned out to be rich in injuries. Already in the first half, both head coaches — Luis Enrique and Hansi Flick — were forced to make one forced substitution each due to injuries to Ousmane Dembele and Dani Olmo. In the second half, PSG's Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia suffered a serious injury: due to a knee injury, he could not continue playing.

How it happened

In the 57th minute, Kvaratskhelia, after a collision with defender Havi Espart, fell awkwardly onto the turf. At first it seemed that the Spanish defender suffered more from the contact, but Espart got up and continued playing, while Kvaratskhelia remained lying on the pitch, holding his right knee. In the 59th minute, Luis Enrique substituted him for Maignan Akliouche. The footballer could not leave the pitch on his own: two medical staff members escorted him under the stands, supporting him by the arms. The footage showed that the player could not put weight on his right leg.

Diagnosis and recovery timeline

Already during the match, assumptions appeared about a tear of the knee cruciate ligaments in Kvaratskhelia. On October 21, the Parisian club officially announced that the cruciate ligaments of the footballer's right knee were torn. Spanish physiotherapist Angel Villanueva, after studying video footage of the episode, suggested that recovery would take nine months.