Faouzi Ghoulam gets good news after surgery

While the loss of Faouzi Ghoulam to a torn ACL hurts dearly for Napoli, the news isn’t all bad right now. Ghoulam had his surgery Friday morning, and in the aftermath there was a slight glimmer of hope given to Napoli fans.

In a statement on the official club website, Napoli declared that Ghoulam underwent successful surgery on his right knee at the Villa Stuart clinic in Rome, and further indicated that “Ghoulam could be back working with the first team no earlier than 90 days.”

Now, before you get excited that Ghoulam could be back in the starting lineup against Benevento on February 4th, that 90 day figure is just an indication as to when he could return to training, not to full game action. And even then, that’s just the best-case outcome. That said, we’ve seen Ghoulam make quicker-than-expected returns from injury and back to full fitness before, so there’s plenty of reason to hope that we could see him return to the pitch in time for Napoli’s crucial March 4th match against Roma at the San Paolo.

Fingers crossed for a positive, and most importantly healthy, outcome in all this. Napoli lean heavily on Ghoulam’s talent, and they need him fit and firing at full strength for the massive closing months of the season they’ll be facing, with a Serie A title chase in their dreams.