Ireland and Everton captain Seamus Coleman has taken to Instagram to confirm that he has avoided a major injury. Coleman was on the receiving end of a horror challenge in Everton's game at the King Power on Monday night against Leicester.
Leicester's Boubakary Soumaré had gone through Coleman with a reckless tackle just before half time, and the multiple slow motion replays of the challenge made it appear that Coleman had suffered a potential career-ending injury.
The tackle happened on the same right leg that Neil Taylor broke in two places when Ireland played Wales in 2017.
Making things even more complicated for the 34-year-old is the fact that he's out of contract next season, and Everton sit in 19th place in the Premier League with only four fixtures remaining.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, it was easy to imagine a situation where Coleman never played professional football again. While many initially feared the worst, Coleman underwent a scan yesterday, and the news is good.
He shared those results to his private instagram audience of 492 people. The message read: 'Just wanted to update you all, thanks so much for the well wishes. Just back from my scan & pleased to say I have no ACL damage. Be back soon.' He signed the message with a clenched bicep emoji.
Great news, he’s made of tough stuff! pic.twitter.com/vK7GvMz4Bv
— Ger McNally (@GerMc31) May 3, 2023
For a professional footballer, Coleman has small instagram following, though it was notable that former Ireland international Declan Rice was present in the comments wishing his former captain a 'speedy recovery mate'. He signed the message with a blue heart emoji.
Coleman was widely lauded for geeing up his teammates and his supporters from the stretcher on Monday evening. Perhaps this was the first sign that the injury was not as serious as the double-leg break he endured in 2017.
It's hard to know exactly what 'soon' means here. Everton are in a relegation dogfight and Ireland have a vital trip to Athens next month: both Sean Dyche and Stephen Kenny would love to Coleman involved over the next few weeks.
However it plays out, it's clear Monday wasn't the last we saw of the Killybegs man.
