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An article in El Confidential today by journalist Kike Marin:
Marin says there is no shortage of those around the club who, “off the record”, will say the problem with Bruno is a “paripé’, which translates loosely as posturing, an act, etc.
The official version is that in July 2017, doctors in Spain removed some bone spurs, etc. and he was expected to return to the pitch in three months. It never happened. Finally, almost two years later (June 2019), another surgery was performed, this one by a doctor in Finland, and addressed the patellar tendon in Bruno’s left knee.
No recovery time was given, but in October it was reported Bruno was doing some running, everything seemed good, and then in November he was doing part-time work with the group and was beginning to hit the ball around a bit, also without pain. However, since those reports, nothing. He continues to show up in the injury report for each match, but the language never changes (“in process of re-adaptation”).
What is known is that Bruno and Villarreal talked briefly in the summer about buying out the remainder of his contract, but it went nowhere.
I frankly don’t understand the inference in the last paragraph or two of the article that “maybe the real reason he hasn’t returned to the pitch is something else”. But the author is probably correct when he says the lack of information from Villarreal on what is really going on doesn’t benefit anyone.