Nico Gaitan set to miss Champions League game versus Rostov

Nicolas Gaitan’s career at Atletico Madrid has not gotten off to the kind of start he might have liked. While it hasn’t been brutal, it has also not been overly exciting.

He has been looked over for the likes of Angel Correa in recent weeks and the red-hot Yannick Carrasco to start the season and has failed to break into Simeone’s side as many suggested he would when he arrived from Benfica for a reported €25 million in the summer.

He suffered a glute injury in the first half against Malaga in just his third start in the league and will now most likely miss the game against Rostov in the Vicente Calderon with a timeframe of his return not reported.

The visit of Rostov to the Calderon might have proven to be the kind of game that would help get him into his stride with Rostov having to travel a long distance and looking all but eliminated from reaching the next round of the Champions League.

Diego Simeone’s side is notoriously hard to break into with players such as Antoine Griezmann struggling to adapt during his first six months in Spain’s capital. Jackson Martinez and Luciano Vietto had similar struggles and found themselves at the departure gate of the Adolfo Suarez airport fairly quickly.

Gaitan will have to take every opportunity that he is presented with in the coming weeks and months but these niggling injuries will certainly not help his chances of making a real impact at the club.