Fenerbahçe Medicana are without French middle blocker Barthélémy Chinenyeze for now after medical checks found a strain in his abdominal muscles, the Istanbul club announced.
According to the club’s statement, Chinenyeze had been feeling tenderness and pain around his abdomen. Examinations and scans then showed a strain with oedema in the rectus abdominis, the long muscle that runs down the front of the stomach. Fenerbahçe said his treatment is ongoing and that, as a precaution, he did not play in last match of SMS Grup Efeler Ligi match.
The club did not give a timeframe for his return, saying only that it hopes to see him back to full health as soon as possible. Abdominal problems are a delicate issue for middle blockers, whose game is built on explosive jumping at the net and quick-tempo attacks, so a cautious approach in the early weeks of the season is no surprise.
Fenerbahçe coped without him on Tuesday night. In the third round of the Turkish league, the yellow-and-navy side came back from 21-18 down late in the opening set to beat ON Hotels Alanya Belediyespor 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-18) in Istanbul, with Kaan Gürbüz finishing as the top scorer. The win lifted Fenerbahçe to five points after three rounds, four behind early leaders Gebze Belediyesi Spor.
Chinenyeze is one of the headline signings in a Fenerbahçe roster that also features American opposite Matt Anderson, Brzilian setter Fernando Kreling, and the club will be keen to have its full front line available as the domestic schedule picks up pace. How quickly he recovers will become clearer once his treatment progresses.
Fenerbahçe’s next league assignment comes on Saturday 31 October, when they face İBB Spor Kulübü in round four in Ankara.
