Dias suffers broken foot

There’s no fun way to say this, so we’ll dive right into it. Gil Dias broke his left foot—specifically the fifth proximal phalanx bone—in the Portugal U21s’ 3-1 defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday. After a round of medical tests, Fiorentina has confirmed the diagnosis, and expects the 21-year-old winger to miss at least a month, although (and we’re not doctors) we’d expect him to be out longer than that.

It’s a serious blow for Stefano Pioli, who’s relied on Dias quite a bit. The AS Monaco loanee has started 2 of the Viola’s Serie A matches and been brought in off the bench in the other 5, scoring one and assisting another. While he still seems a bit hesitant and hasn’t yet consistently delivered an end product, there’s no questioning his raw ability on the ball, as he’s always a safe bet to beat his marker with pace, power, and scintillating technique.

The question now is how the mister will cope. Dias brings an element of pace and trickiness that guys like Marco Benassi and Cyril Théréau don’t have. The most natural option for the wing is definitely Valentin Eysseric, who’s been curiously absent since his recovery from an ankle knock after an impressive start. Riccardo Saponara could also see more minutes. There’s also a chance that Ianis Hagi could get a run, especially in light of his recent dissatisfaction.