Villarreal will be without French midfielder, Francis Coquelin after confirming on Monday that he needs surgery on a torn cruciate ligament in his right knee.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 31-year-old former Arsenal and Valencia player suffered the injury during Sunday night's 1-0 defeat at home to FC Barcelona after a collision with Barca midfielder, Franck Kessie and had tests on Monday morning that confirmed the extent of his problem, reports Xinhua news agency.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Villarreal have confirmed that he will need an operation on the injury and the usual recovery time for this kind of problem.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The injury comes at a difficult moment for Villarreal, who have slipped to eighth in the classification after a run of three successive defeats.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
They are currently without key players, Giovani Lo Celso and Gerard Moreno through injury, while Manu Morlanes is also out of a squad, that was weakened by the loss of forward, Arnaut Danjuma in the January transfer window.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The injury comes at a difficult moment for Villarreal, who have slipped to eighth in the classification after a run of three successive defeats.<\/p>\r\n\r\n