Irreplaceable, just has so many niggling injuries, commands the back line and team when he's there, when he's not, the whole team falls apart. This seaaon there's 25 premier league games left, at least 9 UCL games left, (if we ever won the damn thing) 4 league cup games, same as before and 7 FA cup games. So 45+ games left possibly left to play.
I can't see him playing all those, maybe 15-20 of them, especially when theres international games in between them and you know he'll play for Belgium this year with the Euro's coming up.
For me he's almost finished as a player for us. How many hamstring/calf injuries is it now?
A silly statement to make in the short term but we need to look for a replacement in the long term. Hopefully he'll stay and take up a role in the management team.