Benteke injury bad news for Belgium, good news for Aston Villa
Published:The obvious reaction to Christian Benteke being injured for at least six months with a ruptured Achilles tendon is that it is bad news both in the short and long term for Aston Villa.
Benteke has scored over a third of Villa’s Premier League goals single-handedly since joining the club and even though the sense is that he has underachieved in the current campaign, he has still netted 10 top-flight strikes.
He is one of only 16 Premier League players to have accomplished this feat so far this season.
However, he won’t be adding to this tally and there will be some that believe Villa could be dragged back into the relegation mix, from their current position eight points above the drop zone.
Two wins from their final seven games should definitely see Villa safe and they do still have Fulham and Hull to play at home, alongside winnable visits to Crystal Palace and Swansea.
But, there may be some mileage in the 50/1 that Villa go down, especially considering they have lost half of their matches without the talismanic Benteke this season.
The bad news in the longer term from the injury is that Benteke will now miss the World Cup and in a way, Paul Lambert was expecting his striker to shine to bump up his price for a summer departure.
His absence in Brazil now means that Villa are far more likely to miss out on an anticipated £30m+ windfall, which could have been reinvested on a handful of other players to strengthen their squad.
This injury will have to bring about a change to Villa’s transfer shortlist, although having Benteke for a third season will surely be a bigger boost to the club than any possible new recruit.
As for Belgium, the excitement levels must have extinguished regarding their price of 14//1 to win the World Cup, although fellow striker Romelu Lukaku does suddenly look a more appealing bet at 25/1 to be the tournament’s top scorer.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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