Kyiv's Dynamo faced an unwelcome surprise on the eve of the fifth round of the Ukrainian championship. The captain and leader of the capital's team, Vitaliy Buyalsky, will not be able to help his teammates in the match against Cherkasy's LNZ due to an injury he sustained. This is reported by Sport RBC.UA, citing journalist and insider Igor Burbas. The absence of such a player on the eve of a home league match is a significant loss for the coaching staff, as Buyalsky is a key figure in midfield and the unofficial leader of the dressing room.
The club's official channel confirmed that the 33-year-old midfielder will not be included in the squad for the game against LNZ. According to the insider, Buyalsky sustained the injury during the final preparatory days before the match, and the medical staff diagnosed a muscle injury that will keep him out for the time being. Details and the original source of the information are available on the publication's website — Sport RBC.UA.
Squad loss ahead of the match against LNZ
For Dynamo, the absence of the captain before a home league match is not just one less player, but the loss of the organizational core in midfield. Buyalsky has been one of the most experienced and reliable midfielders in the team for many seasons, and his role in building attacks and retaining possession is difficult to replace on the fly. The coaching staff will have to rework the formation and find a replacement both tactically and psychologically, since it is the captain who often takes on leadership duties in the key moments of a match.
Diagnosis and recovery timeline
According to the preliminary forecast of the medical staff, the Dynamo captain will need up to three weeks for a full recovery. This means that Buyalsky will miss not only the match against LNZ, but also several of the "white and blues'" next games. It is important to emphasize that this is a medical forecast, not a fixed return date: the exact timeline will depend on the dynamics of recovery and the results of follow-up examinations, so the final benchmark for returning to the starting lineup may be adjusted either downward or upward.
Buyalsky's statistics this season
In the current season, Vitaliy Buyalsky has played eight matches, in which he recorded two goal contributions. It should be noted that this figure reflects the combined statistics across all competitions in which Dynamo is participating, while the Ukrainian championship at the point of the fifth round is at an earlier stage. Nevertheless, the numbers confirm that the captain remains an important participant in the team's attacking actions, and his absence deprives the "white and blues" of one of the main creators of play in midfield.
Context of the 5th round of the UPL
The match between Dynamo and LNZ will take place on Sunday, September 6, at the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium in Kyiv. Kick-off is at 13:00. In the same fifth round of the Ukrainian Premier League, Shakhtar secured a come-from-behind victory over Karpaty, which underscores the competitive density of the current stretch of the championship. For the Kyiv side, the game against the Cherkasy club becomes a test of their ability to compensate for the loss of their captain and maintain their pace in the standings.
