FORMER WOMEN’S BALLON d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg has undergone surgery on a stress fracture to her left tibia, the Norwegian’s club Lyon announced on Tuesday.
The European champions said Hegerberg had the operation last Friday, but has recovered from an unrelated knee ligament injury which required surgery in February.
“Hampered since April 2019 by persistent pain in the left tibia, the medical team diagnosed a stress fracture and first undertook a treatment to accelerate the recovery,” Lyon said in a statement.
The 25-year-old forward won her fifth Champions League title last weekend despite missing out on the ‘Final Eight’ tournament in Spain, where Lyon beat Wolfsburg 3-1 in the final.
“Every time I step on the pitch I’m giving 100%, and sometimes the body says stop,” Hegerberg, who joined Lyon in 2014, said in a Twitter post.
“While my knee has fully recovered and is ready to go, I took advantage of this particular period to take care of a year-old injury. This is just a slight delay. See you guys very soon.”
Hegerberg won the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or award in 2018. Prior to her original knee injury, she had scored nine goals in just four Champions League fixtures last season, as well as 14 in 13 Division 1 Féminine appearances.
In her six-year career with the five-in-a-row European champions, she has found the net 220 times in 182 outings in all competitions.
