Despite winning seven caps for Poland and possessing the sort of pace that would trouble a greyhound, the 26-yearold has started just 35 Championship games for Norwich, Birmingham, Swansea and Oxford.
Health problems have plagued Placheta, who signed for Oxford in July after being released by Swansea at the end of last season.
In the summer of 2021, a year after joining Norwich in 3 million euro transfer from Polish side Slask Wroclaw, the winger contracted Covid-19.
A routine heart scan returned such alarming results that club doctors briefly feared Placheta had suffered a cardiac arrest; he hadn’t, but the impact of Covid on his respiratory system proved so severe that it was November before he played again.
By then, Norwich were in a Premier League relegation battle, though manager Dean Smith did hand Placheta topflight starts against Arsenal, Manchester United and West Ham.
In 2022-23, a loan to Birmingham was cut short after just five games when a seemingly innocuous muscle injury turned out to be a tibial rupture.
This story is from the January 12, 2025 edition of The Football League Paper.
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This story is from the January 12, 2025 edition of The Football League Paper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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