Ronaldinho Injury Not as Serious as Once Feared
Italian giants AC Milan have dodged a massive bullet just before the start of the Serie A season, as an injury to Ronaldinho is not as serious as once feared. The 30 year-old Brazilian, who had only recently returned to training, pulled up during practice with what was assumed to be a muscle tear. Initial reports from the Milan camp were that the striker would miss “at least 30 days," putting him at risk for the start of the Italian league.
However, the former World Player of the Year has since underwent a scan to determine the extent of the muscle damage, and is now not expected to miss as much time. “Ronaldinho sustained a left femoral bicep strain. The prognosis is of around seven days,” the team announced on their website, explaining that the player’s thigh muscle had only been extended and not torn. The Brazilian superstar had just started training with the rest of the team, after a week in the gym. He will now be rested and forced to follow specialized rehabilitation training.
Ronaldinho was in impressive form in a preseason tour of North America, and due to the lingering injury to midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo, he is being counted on to provide offensive creativity. In fact, should Pirlo be unable to recapture his past form, much of the team’s playmaking would fall on the Brazilian’s shoulders.
Help could come from Pato, but the young Brazilian will need to improve upon a disappointing season last year, which saw him slump to 12 goals. Thus far, the 20 year-old striker has scored only once in four preseason appearances.
The team has also promoted Nnamdi Oduamadi and promising attacking midfielder Simone Verdi from the youth team. Both are expected to provide energy off the bench this year, but they will need time to adjust to life in the top-flight.
A long-term injury to Ronaldinho, then, would have devastating effects on the Rossoneri’s season, as the team, much to the dismay of their fans, have continued to be extremely frugal on the transfer market, only bringing in goalkeeper Marco Amelia and defenders Mario Yepes and Sokratis Papasthopoulos.
The Milan ultras have not reacted well to this conservative approach, and recently protested the team's lack of spending. In a press release, they called team president – and Italian Prime Minister - Silvio Berlusconi, “an unjustified absentee." The release went on to say that while they understood “the problems big clubs are having in investing and managing budgets,” they felt that “you can still make big signings without spending ridiculous figures.”
Nevertheless, this has not affected the team’s new emphasis on financial responsibility. “The market is closed, assuming no one departs, this is the team,” team vice-president Adriano Galliani told the Italian press. “If someone leaves, then someone will come. But I think this will be our squad,” he said. This may have been meant to reassure certain players – forward Klass-Jan Huntelaar continues to be linked with a move to England – but it did not reassure fans. After all, the Rossoneri began their preseason play with a 2-0 loss to Varese, a recently promoted Serie B team.
To make matters worse, the ultras also had to suffer the indignity of hearing their own team captain, Massimo Ambrosini, praise their bitter rivals, Inter: “It is beyond doubt that the Nerazzurri are still a step ahead of everyone else right now,” he told the Italian sports media.
Ronaldinho’s improved prognosis, then, supplies some much needed good news, even if the team will play the Emirates Cup - a friendly tournament against Arsenal, Celtic, and Olympique Lyonnais - without their Brazilian ace.
Tags: