Major blow for Astana as top scorer injured

Astana captain, striker Tanat Nuserbayev (28), looks set to miss the Champions League qualifiers against Celtic after the injury he picked up in the win over Zalgiris in the last round proved worse than initially expected.

The player travelled to Germany yesterday for a formal diagnosis of what looks to be damage to the meniscus cartilage in his knee.

Nuserbayev is Astana’s top goal scorer. Despite being 21 games into their league programme, the squad only has two others who have scored more than three goals (one scored four, one scored five), so this will be a major loss for the Kazaks, who are pretty distraught at the news.