Luiz Gustavo (Photo : Reuters)
Luiz Gustavo will miss playing for Dunga's Brazilian national team in the coming Copa America tournament which starts on Thursday in Chile. ESPN reported that the VfL Wolfsburg defensive midfielder is scheduled for a knee operation next week to repair a torn meniscus allegedly suffered during the final of the DFB-Pokal tournament held at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on May 30.
Gustavo, who was a key player for his German team Wolfsburg during the DFB-Pokal championship match against Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund, appeared to have aggravated the injury he had been complaining about for a long time.
The 27-year-old was impressive in the early minutes and scored the first goal of their 3-1 victory via a rebound from a shot by teammate and fellow Brazilian Naldo to even the count at one apiece. From then on, the knee started to give, and so was Gustavo.
Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking said that the damage to his ward's knee was "greater than expected" and it would be too risky for Gustavo to force himself to compete in the Copa tourney. Hecking added that he wished Gustavo would just take his time to fully recover and rest after the surgery, so he can be ready for the training sessions of the coming season.
Meanwhile, Daily Mail Online reported that coach Dunga will replace Gustavo with Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos.
More popularly known as Fred, the 22-year-old Santos is an attacking midfielder for the Ukrainian club and was recently recognized by Wonderkids as one of the top 100 young football players today.
