Sports doctor Dmytro Babeliuk commented on the situation with the recovery of Bournemouth defender Ilya Zabarnyi from injury.
Gary O'Neill and Ilya Zabarny. Photo: afcb.co.uk"I would like to make some clarity on Zabarnyi, because against the backdrop of the upcoming match of the Ukrainian national team, there is quite different information about his condition and recovery time.
Is he training in the general group? No, he is not. Today, Ilya has started the last stage of recovery, which is called return to play. At this stage, the player starts working on the field, in boots, does a lot of running work, and starts working with the ball.
The general group is when the player does the entire training session with the team and prepares for the next game. This is definitely not the stage at which the Ukrainian defender is now.
When can we expect Zabarnyi on the field? As a rule, the last stage of recovery lasts from 2 to 6 weeks, depending on the player's condition and progress. It seems that Gary O'Neill was a bit disingenuous when he said that the player would recover at the end of April. Given the fact that Ilya is on the field, we can expect him to recover a little faster.
Perhaps he will have time to recover for the match at Wembley, but the question for the coaches is whether we should count on a player without a game tone," Babeliuk wrote on his telegram channel.
