Planet Swans ArchivesSwansea have confirmed that Neil Taylor suffered a fractured ankle in the 2-2 draw with Sunderland at the Liberty
Taylor was stretchered off during the first half of the game following a challenge with Craig Gardner.
And boss Michael Laudrup confirmed the fracture after the game when he said “I just talked to the doctor and we are still not 100% but there is a fracture, at least one.
“We are talking about a long period of rehabilitation before he returns to the game, I can’t tell you precisely how long because I don’t know.
“When you have injuries like that it is normally very violent, but this was not violent,” he added. “It was even a free-kick against us. Sometimes these injuries happen in strange ways, you don’t think anything is wrong and then there is ligament damage or something like that, it is very sad.
“But you see things that are much more violent than that – this was not violent, it was unlucky.
“He was very unlucky to fall in a bad way, you can’t blame the Sunderland player for that.”
Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill echoed Laudrup’s sentiments and said he felt sympathy for Gardner following the home support’s angry reaction to the incident.
“I don’t know why they thought that (it was a bad tackle by Gardner). He was trying to go past and the young lad has made a foul and it’s very sad he has broken his ankle.
“But I think the crowd were laying into him and he was surprised by that and he came over to me to say he didn’t do it.
“He was startled and he came over to tell me. We even had the free-kick, but Taylor is a very decent player and it is sad he is injured.”
Gardner himself tweeted: “Hope Taylor is ok I never touched him but not a nice sight when a fellow professional goes off on a stretcher.”
