Vincent Kompany confirms brutal injury blow to Burnley's fading survival hopes
Burnley’s Lyle Foster will be out for months after Vincent Kompany revealed he has had surgery.
Kompany refused to say where Foster has had the operation and says he needed it to resolve a long-standing problem. The Burnley boss expects the South Africa striker, who is the Clarets’ joint-top Premier League scorer with four goals, to return before the end of the campaign as the club battle relegation.
“In terms of Lyle Foster, he won’t be available yet,” said Kompany. “He’s had surgery on a chronic issue that needed resolving. It’s not season over, but he will certainly miss out for a period of time.”
Kompany refused to give any more details on Foster’s procedure when pressed. “No, I think that’s enough,” he said. “You would ask me next week and the week after.”
Foster is expected to miss South Africa’s friendlies at the end of next month at home to Algeria and Andorra before their World Cup campaign resumes in June. Kompany again defended Foster’s decision not to go to the AFCON as he recovered from his mental health issues.
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Foster’s current injury is not related to those issues and Kompany claimed it was important to provide him with a caring environment at Burnley. South Africa coach Hugo Broos reignited his war or words with Kompany when he claimed after his team finished third at the AFCON in Ivory Coast that he still couldn’t understand why Foster withdrew.
Broos claimed he was unhappy that Foster made seven appearances, including six starts, when he returned to action in mid-December. “I can explain it again,” said Kompany. “It’s not frustrating, it’s expected. I’ll explain it again very calmly, physical fitness and mental fitness are two very different things.
Lyle Foster is set for an extended spell on the Burnley sidelines“You can be physically fit, but you can also be mentally in a position where it’s not a possibility for you to go away to a tournament for a month. You’re not in that headspace, you don’t have the capacity to deal with that.
“We’ve been very open about it. You come out of the rehab clinic and you’re dealing with a problem that is beyond football, it’s life.
“We were just part of his rehabilitation plan. It’s his environment. He comes in through the doors, he’s there with people of his age, friends as well.
“We’re part of his rehabilitation, his support system, so I can explain it again and again and again until people understand.
“People have a different way to look at these things in various parts of the world. That’s the reality of it and I respect that as well. But if your starting position is from the care of the player, then you find the right answers.”
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