Konstantinos Mavropanos picked up an injury in FC Nürnberg’s clash with SV Darmstadt 98 on Sunday, a disappointing setback after his recent strong form.

Konstantinos Mavropanos makes goalline clearance for FC Nürnberg (Photo via FCN.de)
Konstantinos Mavropanos makes goalline clearance for FC Nürnberg (Photo via FCN.de)

FC Nürnberg faced Darmstadt in their fifth match in the 2. Bundesliga since the Arsenal defender joined on loan in January. Unfortunately, Mavropanos went down with an injury in the 10th minute. He received treatment and tried to come back on, but by the 13th minutes they had to sub him off.

Mavropanos was on a good run of form before the injury. He won consecutive Man of the Match awards in his second and third game for the club, before making a key goalline clearance in his fourth.

Nürnberg failed to pick up any points against Darmstadt in Mavropanos’ absence. After taking the lead, they conceded a red card and a penalty in the 54th minute to make it 1-1, then lost the match to an 89th-minute winner. The referee awarded them another red card in injury time to compound their misery.

The club are clearly hoping for a quick return for Mavropanos now:

We’ll wait on a more detailed update on the injury, but this is worrying news for the defender. He shows his ability in purple patches, but his fitness record isn’t good at all. That’s what kept him out of the Arsenal first team for most of Unai Emery’s tenure.

The benefit of the loan was to give him a chance to find some consistency. That’s still possible, but the length of his recovery schedule is key now.