Raúl Jiménez to Undergo Knee Surgery, Will Miss Several Months for Wolves

The news nobody in Wolverhampton wanted to hear finally arrived: Raúl Jiménez will undergo surgery and will miss several months of action. The English club confirmed that the Mexican forward suffered an injury to the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his left knee during the match against Everton four weeks ago, and that the recovery did not go as hoped.

For a while, Wolves held out hope of getting Jiménez back without the need for surgery. In fact, the club itself said it felt "positive" about having him available in the coming weeks. But the medical scans changed the outlook entirely: the ligament wasn't healing the way it should have, and after three weeks of follow up testing, the decision became clear.

The club's director of performance, Phil Hayward, explained the reasoning behind the call:

We've decided that the best course of action is surgery to repair the ligament. Typically, a ligament with a mild grade injury would heal on its own, however this case hasn't responded as expected, and after running regular tests over the last three weeks, we've seen that the ligament isn't healing the way we anticipated. We consulted with several knee specialists and concluded that surgery is the best option, this way we regain control over the timeline and have a clear sense of when he'll be able to play again.Phil Hayward

The club was also candid about the risk of waiting any longer: if the conservative treatment hadn't worked, surgery would have been necessary anyway, just with more time lost in the process. The operation is now scheduled for this Friday in London, followed by roughly three months of rehabilitation before Jiménez is ready to return to the field.

A step by step process

Hayward laid out what the forward's recovery will look like. In the first few weeks after the operation, the focus will be on maintaining muscle mass while the initial wound heals. In his words, it's "a fairly straightforward procedure for an experienced knee surgeon," one that simply reattaches the ligament to the tibia without needing a reconstruction. After the first two weeks, Jiménez will be able to step up his work in the gym and the pool, and around the four week mark he'll begin incorporating weight bearing exercises on the knee.

The forward's absence is also a major blow for the Mexican national team. Dulio Davino, director of national teams, said Rafael Márquez found out about the news at seven in the morning on October 14, right as the squad list for November's FIFA date was being put together.

Right, we found out with Rafa at seven in the morning. Raúl suffered a knee injury three weeks ago, doctors thought that with conservative treatment he could be ready. It didn't progress the way we wanted, yesterday he saw a specialist and it was decided he'll have surgery on Friday. We hope he's back as soon as possible, he has a lot left to give us.Dulio Davino

The absence comes at a tough time for the Tricolor, who have struggled to find their finishing touch up front. Márquez will now have to find a way to make up, even partially, for the goal scoring production the Wolverhampton attacker usually provides.