Rossi 'lucky' but still out for six weeks

Villarreal CF striker Giuseppe Rossi could be out for the rest of the UEFA Cup group stage after suffering a knee injury in Sunday's thrilling 4-3 victory at Club Atlético de Madrid.

Lucky escape
The 20-year-old, a summer signing from Manchester United FC, opened the scoring yesterday as Villarreal moved to within a point of Primera División leaders Real Madrid CF but was substituted at the end of the first half and examination has confirmed cartilage damage in his right knee. Club doctor Joan Albors said: "The player has been lucky. He has bruised the ligament and that means he was close to causing serious damage to the knee but luckily it's just down to the meniscus. If all goes well, he won't be out for longer than six weeks."

Group encounters
Rossi will miss the Group C trip to FK Mláda Boleslav on Thursday and visit of IF Elfsborg a month today, and may struggle to play at AEK Athens FC on 20 December. He is also out of Italy's UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers against Azerbaijan and in the Faroe Islands later this month.