Americans Abroad

Reyna is out at least three weeks with knee, ankle injuries; starts talks on new contract.

Claudio Reyna injured a knee and ankle in an attempted tackle against Arsenal. -- Manchester City web site photo --

By Gary Davidson (in Washington, D.C.)
SoccerTimes

(Tuesday, October 25, 2005) -- United States midfielder and captain Claudio Reyna will be sidelined for at least three weeks after injuring his knee and ankle in an attempted tackle in Manchester City's 1-0 loss at Arsenal in the English Premier League Saturday.

Reyna limped off and was replaced by Lee Croft in the 73rd minute.

A full diagnosis of the injury and thus the length of time he will miss will not be known until later in the week.

"Claudio has had a scan and he looks as though it could be a few weeks," City manager Stuart Pearce was quoted on the team's web site. "We'll be getting the prognosis this week. It will be a couple of weeks, I suspect. It's his knee and ankle, the ball has fired both back in one jarring motion.

"He's done well for us. He's been available for all the games where I've been in charge, so he's not had a bad run at it. He's probably fortunate we took him off as soon as he did it rather than let him go back on."

Pearce told the Manchester Evening News that he hoped Reyna, 31, would be able to return for a November 19 home match with Blackburn Rovers.

The Evening News also reported today that City has opened negotiations to extend Reyna's contract beyond his current three-year deal that expires this summer.

City is 5-3-2 with 17 points, tied with Bolton Wanderers (5-3-2) for seventh place, two points out of second place, but 11 behind league-leading Chelsea (9-0-1).

Gary Davidson is SoccerTimes managing editor. E-mail Gary Davidson.