Jese Rodriguez Injury: Updates on Real Madrid Forward's Knee and Return

Updates from Saturday, April 5

Jese has undergone a second surgery, according to Marca:

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Jesé has undergone an arthroscopy to see the state of his right knee. According to Real Madrid's medical report, Dr. Ulrich Boenisch has carried out "the surgery with success and the player will stay in hospital for the next few days under the surveillance of the Real Madrid medical team".

"After detecting inflammation in the knee operated on, together with fever", the player was taken back to the German hospital.

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Updates from Friday, April 4

Jese could be facing a second operation on his knee after it was revealed he had suffered a setback in his recovery.

ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan summarises a report produced by Marca:

Carlo Ancelotti later explained, via Corrigan:

Updates from Thursday, March 20

Jese underwent successful surgery on Thursday to begin his recovery from a torn cruciate ligament.

AS reported the news, via ESPN FC:

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Jese underwent successful anterior cruciate ligament and lateral meniscus surgery on Thursday in Germany after injuring the right knee during Real Madrid's 3-1 victory over Schalke in the Champions League. 

Dr. Ulrich Boenisch, who also performed ACL and MCL surgery on Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira last November, was in charge of the operation.

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Real Madrid's official website had earlier confirmed that Jese was heading for the operating table:

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Jesé Rodríguez travels to Germany today, Wednesday, for an appointment with Doctor Ulrich Boenisch. The meeting will take place in Augsburg in order to look at preparations for an operation which could take place on Thursday. This is the same doctor who operated on Sami Khedira on 11th November, 2013.

The appointment in Germany will be overseen by the Sanitas-Real Madrid Medical Services, specifically by the doctors Jesús Olmo and Francisco Morate. The decision to turn to Doctor Boenisch was taken after Jesé's visit to Valdebebas, just a few hours after he seriously injured his knee.

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Updates from Wednesday, March 19

Carlo Ancelotti expressed his sadness for Jese Rodriguez after the Real Madrid star suffered a serious knee injury against Schalke on Tuesday.

Ancelotti told Madrid's official website:

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I think it has been confirmed that Jesé has torn his cruciate ligament. He was unlucky. I think that the whole of Real Madrid has been unlucky. We are going to lose a very important player, a young man who has done very well this season and surprised everyone. That is football. Injuries come in a player's career and we will be close to him and support him and we'll be waiting for him next season.

We hope to have him ready soon and we would like to send him our support. We are waiting for him and we wish him luck. He will certainly be an important player for Real Madrid after his injury. We are sad. We are very sorry about this, but these things happen in football. It could be an important time for him, to enjoy this time of difficulty and build his character. I had the same problem at the same age. The period of downtime is not good, but it is not so bad. We have to stay positive.

 

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Original Text

Jese Rodriguez suffered a knee injury during the second leg of Real Madrid's round-of-16 matchup with Schalke on Tuesday.    

The 21-year-old went down around the eighth minute and was subbed off for Gareth Bale, per Spanish paper AS:

Spanish football journalist Dermot Corrigan reported the young Spaniard tried to continue after going down but that the injury was too severe:

After the match FOX Sports provided an update:

His agent confirmed the bad news according to football-espana.net.

Jese was stretchered off the pitch. More often than not, that's an indication that a player has suffered a serious problem that will keep him out for the long term:

The timing of the injury couldn't be worse for Madrid.

Karim Benzema went down in their eventual 1-0 win against Malaga. Now the Spanish league leaders may be without both players for the critical El Clasico against Barcelona.

With a win, Madrid will go seven points clear of the Catalans, which would be a near insurmountable gap this close to the end of the season. A loss would mean that the title race is wide open again, with Barcelona back just a point and Atletico Madrid possibly level on points with their cross-town rivals.

Although Jese was unlikely to be a key figure in the upcoming El Clasico, his injury leaves Carlo Ancelotti with one less option in the attack in what is the club's most important fixture left in the season.