Defender Đoàn Văn Hậu of Hà Nội FC has suffered a right knee injury and needs about three months to recover. Photo tintuc.vn

Football

HÀ NỘI — Defender Đoàn Văn Hậu of Hà Nội FC has suffered a recurrence of a right knee injury and needs about three months to recover, his club has confirmed.

Hậu suffered the injury on Monday during training to prepare for the new football season.

Hậu’s injury was first identified in early September this year when he felt pain after a training session with the capital team.

The injury will mean Hậu won’t be able to join the upcoming national team training camp and will likely miss the start of the 2021 V.League 1 season.

However, if Hậu’s recovery goes well, he could return in early March 2021, right before the national team play a crunch match against Malaysia in the second Asian qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup.

Hậu suffered numerous injuries in 2020 and played a total of only seven matches for SC Heerenveen of the Netherlands and Hà Nội.

The fullback had a high workload in the two prior years, playing nearly 90 matches in 2018 and 2019.

In 2018, Hậu had to take a month off due to a thigh muscle injury he suffered in the AFC U23 Championship.

In mid-August 2019, Hậu suffered a right knee injury after a match in the V.League. It took him nearly four weeks to fully recover.

At just 21 years old, Hậu is a key player for both his club and the national team.

The northern province of Thái Bình-born player was one of the youngest Vietnamese players to debut in the V.League 1 when he was 17 years old and then he was selected for the senior national team at the age of 18. — VNS