“Significant loss” – Bad news as national manager reveals Sunderland player muscle tear

Ecuador manager Sebastián Beccacece has confirmed Sunderland’s Nilson Angulo will return to the Premier League side. 

On February 2nd, the winger left Anderlecht to seal a permanent move to the Stadium of Light for €17.3m.

He managed 10 goals and 11 assists from 94 matches for Anderlecht, of which seven goals and eight assists are from this season. The 22-year-old performances for the Belgian club and his potential convinced Sunderland to bet on him.

There was a lot of excitement in Ecuador over his move to Sunderland. However, he is yet to score or contribute an assist for the Black Cats from 347 minutes from six matches, and some of his Premier League stats are as follows.

• Appearances: 5
• Starts: 3
• Minutes: 264
• Minutes per game: 53
• Key passes per game: 0.4
• Shots on target per game: 0.4

Angulo last made an appearance in the Black Cats’ FA Cup defeat to Port Vale. An injury forced him to miss the last two matches.

However, that didn’t stop the national team manager from including him in the squad for this international break.

Sunderland player’s injury blow for Ecuador

On Thursday, Sebastián Beccacece spoke at a press conference and Teleamazonas have relayed his comments on Nilson Angulo.

Both the attacker and Independiente del Valle’s Patrik Mercado will miss Ecuador’s next two fixtures due to injuries, and the manager talked about their absence.

“These are significant losses. The rest are fit and healthy,” he said.

Teleamazonas report the former Anderlecht man will leave the national team camp on Friday and return to Sunderland, where he will work on recovering from a ‘muscle tear’.

Bolavip claim Beccacece’s decision to call up Angulo was ‘completely surprising’ as he was already injured. They label it as a ‘controversial move’ even though the coach, on several occasions, had called up injured players in the past.

Meanwhile, the Sunderland player’s immediate focus would be to recover and regain his form with Régis Le Bris’ side ahead of the World Cup.

Ecuador squad and fixtures for March international break

The national team have two friendlies against

• Morocco on March 27th
• Netherlands on March 31st

Sebastián Beccacece’s squad for these two matches:

Goalkeepers: David Cabezas, Gonzalo Valle, Hernán Galíndez, Moises Ramirez

Defenders: Angelo Preciado, Félix Torres, Jackson Porozo, Joel Ordóñez, José Hurtado, Leonardo Realpe, Pervis Estupiñán, Piero Hincapié, Willian Pacho

Midfielders: Alan Franco, Alan Minda, Anthony Valencia, Bryan Ramirez, Denil Castillo, Gonzalo Plata, Janner Corozo, John Yeboah, Jordy Alcívar, Kendry Páez, Moises Caicedo, Pedro Vite, Yaimar Medina

Forwards: Enner Valencia, Jeremy Arevalo, Jhon Mercado, Jordy Caicedo, Kevin Rodriguez, Leonardo Campana