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Season over for Van der Vaart and Heitinga after extra surgery

24 April: The season's almost certainly over for two of Ajax' youngest and most prolific talents: Rafaël van der Vaart and Johnny Heitinga. Both Ajacieden underwent surgery after having sustained knee injuries earlier this season. In both cases, complications made extra surgery necessary.

Midfield and Ajax topscorer Rafaël van der Vaart (19) sustained a knee injury in the league game against RKC on 10 February this year. A few inner cartilage fragments were removed from his right knee three days later, at Amsterdam's V.U. Hospital. Complications during his recovery made extra surgery necessary. More certilage fragments were removed from his knee on Tuesday, 02 April.

The story of Johnny Heitinga is similar: he slightly tore the outer cartilage of his right knee and underwent surgery only two days after Van der Vaart, on 15 February at V.U. Hospital. He needed an estimated six weeks to recover, but his knee remained swollen. X-rays made clear that the surgery had not been successful. Extra surgery took place last week on 17 April.

This time around, both Ajax youngsters underwent their surgery at the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) in Amsterdam. After two unsuccesful attempts at V.U. Hospital, several Dutch football magazines lashed out at the hospital, mentioning that Marco van Basten's career was destroyed in part due to erratic surgery of this kind.

VI Planet even reported that Ajax considered taking legal action against the hospital, which Ajax then called "pure nonsense". (MP)

(Source: Ajax.nl)