Altintop knock shakes Schalke
Wednesday, October 1, 2003
Article summary
FC Schalke 04's young midfield player Hamit Altintop will miss a month because of a leg injury.
Article body
Dream debut
The 20-year-old Altintop will now miss the UEFA Cup first round second leg against Croatian side NK Kamen Ingrad. The tie, which takes place in the Arena AufSchalke on 16 October, is evenly poised as the first leg in Croatia was goalless. Altintop joined Schalke from SG Wattenscheid 09 for €1.8m in the summer and made an immediate impact by scoring twice on his Bundesliga debut against BV Borussia Dortmund.
Injury list lengthens
The injury to Altintop, who likes to get forward from midfield, is a blow for Schalke as they are already having problems in the goalscoring department with strikers Ebbe Sand and Victor Agali on the injured list. The club are also without Jörg Böhme, who has a cruciate injury, Niels Oude Kamphuis (groin), Kristijan Djordjevic (back) and Gustavo Varela (knee) as they try to improve on their patchy league form which has seen them take just seven points from seven games.
