The Renato Sanches case continues to frustrate Benfica and PSG

Renato Sanches and injuries, a love story which the Portuguese midfielder would like to end. Since the start of his career, the 27-year-old has experienced 29 injuries and 745 days of unavailability, or around two years. Figures which testify to the great fragility of the right-handed winner of Euro 2016. Arriving at Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2022 where he has only played 27 matches (2 goals), he is clearly not in the plans of coach Luis Enrique. Last year, he was asked to go to AS Roma on loan (12 matches, 1 goal) where his body betrayed him and it starts again with Benfica.

However, the optimism of his training club was very present, like the words of his former coach Roger Schmidt at the beginning of August: “we know his situation. But if he was still available and at the highest level, perhaps his return would not be possible. We trust the medical service, the physical trainers and the motivation of Renato. (…) I firmly believe that he will become a very important player for us.» Renato Sanches was going to be injured the day after these comments. President Rui Costa was also very optimistic at the end of September: “he is injured today, it’s true, but I am convinced that he will recover and that he will give a lot. I know how he feels about wearing this jersey and I know he will bring us a lot this year.»

A new relapse

While we are almost halfway through the season, the results are terrible for Renato Sanches, he played 8 matches out of 17, missing the others due to injury. His playing time is therefore quite low with 233 minutes of play (a little more than 29 minutes per match played) where he only had two starts against Santa Clara (3-0) on October 30 and against Bayern Munich. (0-1) on November 6. But each time the problem of its fragility returns. “The main thing is to have the player on the pitch and feel that he is happy to come back to train with the team, but we will take things slowly to avoid taking steps backwards» recalled Bruno Lage, the Aguias coach, in mid-October.

This led to this match against Bayern Munich where he played 86 minutes. He had not played so much in a match since May 27, 2023 and the match between Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse (1-1). However, if this beautiful reveal could give rise to optimism, it has just been shattered again. This Tuesday while training with Benfica, Renato Sanches had to stop in the middle of the action. According to Recordhe was injured again and if unavailability is still unknown at this stage, he has a good chance of missing the Portuguese Cup match against Estrela da Amadora this Saturday when he was expected to start. Bad news for the player, Benfica but also PSG. Indeed, Renato Sanches’ loan comes with a purchase option of 10 million euros that can be activated if he plays at least 60% of the season’s matches. For the moment, it does not exceed 50%.