Mats Wieffer suffers bizarre injury: ‘One of the strangest cases I have ever seen’

Mats Wieffer is temporarily unavailable for Brighton & Hove Albion, manager Fabian Hürzeler announced at a press conference on Friday. The Dutchman suffered the injury in a "bizarre" way, according to English media after the manager's explanation.

Wieffer picked up the injury during Sunday's match against Chelsea, a 4-3 defeat. The 15-cap Netherlands international went off after 80 minutes and Costinha replaced him. Hürzeler has now explained what happened.

"Mats got the ball in his face and as a result briefly did not have control of his body. It was a bit like a punch in boxing," said the German manager. "His legs ended up in a strange position. That is how he picked up this injury."

Hürzeler added: "Fortunately it is not serious. He grabbed his head, got up and then felt his knee. That is how the players explained it to me. It was simply a strange and unfortunate injury. One of the strangest cases I have ever seen."

Wieffer will now be sidelined for the time being. "We think we will be without Mats at least until the upcoming international break. This is really very unfortunate," said Hürzeler.

That rules Wieffer out of the Netherlands' first matches under Xavi. A blow, given he was still part of the World Cup squad last summer and would presumably have wanted to make an immediate impression on the new national team manager.

Brighton will also be without him for matches against Leeds United, Coventry City, Manchester United and Arsenal. He is expected to return to the matchday squad after the international break, on 10 October against Sunderland.