BARCELONA, Spain — Villarreal defender Mateo Musacchio's gruesome leg injury near the end of a 1-1 draw at Getafe overshadowed play in the Spanish league Sunday. Villarreal said that Musacchio broke his fibula and dislocated his left ankle when it completely doubled over while he was running in the 76th minute. The Argentine center back tumbled to the turf in agony as team doctors and the medical staff at Alfonso Perez Stadium rushed to attend to him before carrying him off the pitch on a stretcher. Musacchio underwent a successful operation late Sunday. “Musacchio has been successfully operated on at the Cemtro Clinic in Madrid,” read a club statement. “The recovery time for the footballer will depend on the progress he makes.” “It is a serious, very serious injury,” Villarreal coach Marcelino Garcia said at the ground. “The match is secondary to this. I didn't think Mateo's injury was that serious, but when I approached the stretcher and saw blood I was frightened. The images are chilling.” The 24-year-old Musacchio has played for Villarreal since arriving in 2009 from River Plate, where he debuted in Argentina's top division at the age of 15. Musacchio played his first match with Argentina in a friendly against El Salvador on March 28. The injury will rule him out of this summer's Copa America in Chile. Villarreal remained in sixth place, now 11 points behind Sevilla in fifth, while Getafe inched nine points clear of the relegation zone. Elsewhere, Espanyol took some revenge for its elimination from the Copa del Rey semifinals by beating Athletic Bilbao 1-0 to leapfrog the Basque club into eighth place. Deportivo La Coruna came back twice to draw 2-2 at Real Sociedad in the promising debut of coach Victor Sanchez del Amo. Cordoba moved one step closer to sealing its relegation after a woeful 2-0 loss at home to a modest Elche side, leaving it in last place at nine points from safety with seven rounds to go. Marseille loses to Bordeaux Marseille's hopes of winning a record-equaling 10th league title took a serious blow with a 1-0 loss at Bordeaux Sunday that left the club five points behind the leader. The loss marked the ninth defeat for Marseille this season and the second successive one after Marcelo Bielsa's side lost at home to bitter rival Paris Saint-Gemain last weekend. PSG, which has one match in hand, defeated Bastia 4-0 to win the League Cup Saturday and leads second-place Lyon by one point. Earlier, fullback Franck Tabanou scored the winner as Saint-Etienne remained in contention for a European place with a 1-0 win against Nantes. Fifth-place Saint-Etienne moved within one point of Marseille. Also, Ola Toivonen scored the winner 10 minutes from time with a volley at the near post to give Reims a 1-0 win over Guingamp that guarantees the Brittany side topflight football next season. Toulouse took crucial points in the fight against relegation with a 1-0 win over Montpellier. Toulouse is level on points with 17th-place Reims, nine points above last-but-one Metz. Montpellier remains seventh. — Agencies
