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Valencia were hit with two major blows over the past two weeks, as two of their starting defenders went down with serious injuries. Los Che have reacted by activating the emergency injury rule to bring in a reinforcement.
That reinforcement takes the shape of veteran defender Renzo Saravia, who signs on a free transfer until the end of the season. The 32-year-old has been looking for a new club since leaving Atletico Mineiro in January at the end of his deal. The task on Carlos Corberan’s hands will be to get Saravia up to fitness, having not played since early December, as Valencia battle for safety.
Image via Valencia CF. Saravia shakes hands with Ron Gourlay.
Jose Copete and Dmitri Foulquier ruled out with injury
A major positive of Saravia’s arrival is that he can play in both central defence and at right-back, which theoretically covers the two gaps in their squad created by injury. French right-back Dmitri Foulquier has been a starter all year with Thierry Correia making his way back from injury, but the veteran has now been ruled out until at least May following knee surgery.
On top of that, starting centre-back Jose Copete has also been ruled out after undergoing mensicus surgery. El Chiringuito say he is likely to miss the remainder of the season as he looks to come back from it.
Renzo Saravia’s career
Capped nine times by Argentina, Saravia spent the early portion of his career at Belgrano, before making a switch to Racing. In 2019, he joined Porto for €5.5m, but would then have spells at Internacional, Botafogo and Mineiro, the longest of which was the latter, which lasted three years. It seems likely that Eray Comert and Correia will cover the absences of Copete and Foulquier at least initially, but otherwise Corberan was down to the bare bones in defence. More positive news is that Julen Agirrezabala has returned to training this week, and could be back in goal this weekend against Osasuna.