Laudrup: Injured Taylor set for lengthy rehab

Swansea defender Neil Taylor has suffered a fractured ankle in a tackle with Sunderland’s Craig Gardner, according to Michael Laudrup.

Taylor was stretchered off early in Swansea’s 2-2 draw at home to Sunderland in the English Premier League on Saturday.

While the full extent of the injury is yet to be determined, Swansea manager Laudrup expects the Wales international fullback to be out for some time.

“I just talked to the doctor and we are still not 100 percent but there is a fracture, at least one,” he said.

“We are talking about a long period of rehabilitation before he returns to the game, I can’t tell you precisely how long because I don’t know.”

Laudrup exonerated Gardner of any blame in what was an innocuous incident at the Liberty Stadium.

“When you have injuries like that it is normally very violent, but this was not violent,” he said.

“It was even a free-kick against us.

“Sometimes these injuries happen in strange ways, you don’t think anything is wrong and then there is ligament damage or something like that, it is very sad.

“But you see things that are much more violent than that – this was not violent, it was unlucky.

“He was very unlucky to fall in a bad way, you can’t blame the Sunderland player for that.”

Gardner came under fire from the Swansea supporters following Taylor’s departure, criticism Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill felt was unfair on his player.

“I don’t know why they thought that (it was a bad tackle by Gardner),” he said.

“He was trying to go past and the young lad has made a foul and it’s very sad he has broken his ankle.

“But I think the crowd were laying into him and he was surprised by that and he came over to me to say he didn’t do it.

“He was startled and he came over to tell me. We even had the free-kick, but Taylor is a very decent player and it is sad he is injured.”