Wigan's Rodallega suffers serious knee injury

  Wigan's Rodallega suffers serious knee injury - Yahoo! Eurosport

Wigan Athletic's Colombia forward Hugo Rodallega could be sidelined for up to three months after damaging knee ligaments near the end of their 3-1 defeat at Everton in the Premier League on Saturday, manager Roberto Martinez said.

Hugo has damaged the medial ligament in his right knee and it doesn't look good," Martinez was quoted as saying on Wigan's official website (www.wiganlatics.co.uk).

Di Santo has been playing well, and now it doesn't look like he'll have any competition for the starting role until Christmas.

Season Preview - Wigan Athletic

Quick Reminder, Real Life

Wigan avoided relegation last season, just barely, finishing in 16th thanks to some late season heroics by Charles N’Zogbia (now an Aston Villa player) in a dramatic come from behind victory against relegated West Ham. Aside from N'Zogbia and goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi, who had a breakout season and has proven to be a very reliable Premier League goalkeeper with a nice arsenal of quite acrobatic highlight reel saves to his name, there wasn't much joy around Wigan. Hugo Rodallega took a step back and didn’t improve on his breakout 2009-2010 season and the likes of Gomez and Moses didn't step up. All things considered, however, Wigan did just what they set out to do - survive. A small budget club where television viewers can often witness empty seats at the DW Stadium, Wigan were able to do just enough.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

N’Zogbia was one of the best value plays in Premier League history last season (along with Blackpool’s Charlie Adam) but is now gone. Hugo Rodallega chipped in with just 9 goals but did manage 18 bonus points - a nice return. Ben Watson scored a few goals and picked up a few assists on set-piece duty proving to be a ‘poor man’s N’Zogbia’ from his midfield role, and Al-Habsi kept a few 7 clean sheets and managed the position well after Kirkland's disasterous start to the season.

Summer Changes

Season Preview: Wigan Athletic

Overall Outlook - It's hard to know what to expect from Wigan's roster shuffling thus far.  More importantly, the question is whether that shuffling - specifically the "headed out the door" part is yet complete for the summer.  There have been persistent rumors that either N'Zogbia or Rodallega will be departing for clubs farther up the table.  If either of those players departs, the outlook at Wigan will be dramatically different than it would be with them.  There seems to be a growing base of solid talent but N'Zog and Yayga are the only two who have proven themselves to be potential match-winners.  While neither are so exceptional that they are going to push Wigan firmly into the top half, the lack of a couple proven match winners is going to make it very difficult for them to stay out of a relegation battle.  If both players stay, I predict something in the 13th to 16th place finish area.  If one goes then they'll probably survive but only just barely.  If both go, then we'll be seeing Roberto Martinez back in the Championship next season.