Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
London: Swansea City manager Paul Clement is hopeful that Fernando Llorente's injury in the 2-1 defeat at Hull City on Saturday will not rob him of the Spanish international's services in their battle to stay in the Premier League.
Clement, who has done such a sterling job in turning around Swansea's fortunes since being brought on board in January, conceded after the defeat that the Welsh club were still far from being out of the woods in the scrap for survival.
Rather better news for him, though, is that the injury to his top scorer Llorente, who was forced to limp off just before halftime, does not look likely to keep him out of action.
"Fernando Llorente has been a key player to us recently and gives us lots of different threats. I don't think it is serious, I think he has a dead leg," Clement told the BBC.
Swansea did not have much luck with Angel Rangel also having to come off in the first half while Martin Olsson also picked up a knock.
"Those two injuries in the first half have hurt us and in the second half we were limited to what we could do," said Clement.
"Angel Rangel's is an injury to the ankle. I'm not sure how serious that one is. Martin got a knock on his ankle too. He was not 100 percent but was able to continue."
Clement was not about to use the injury disruptions as an excuse for Swansea's poor defending, though.
"Overall, we have to be disappointed with how they scored and how open we were," he said, irritated at how Oumar Niasse's second-half double put Hull out of sight before Alfie Mawson's injury-time goal proved too little, too late for the Swans.
"I didn't think we were anywhere near safe and we are not anywhere near safe now. We have 10 games to go and have to bounce back next week against Bournemouth."
Swansea, still in 16th place, are now only three points ahead of 18th-placed Hull as the relegation plot thickens.
