Ronaldinho to miss start of the Serie A season
Bad news for AC Milan as Brazilian forward Ronaldinho has been ruled out from the start of the season due to a muscle injury suffered during training. The injury comes after Ronaldinho announced through his brother, and agent, that he would be staying at the club for a long time following a discussion with club President Silvio Berlusconi.
The former World Player of the Year will undergo further tests after limping out of training, which will confirm the exact damage suffered but after a preliminary examination it was determined that his spell out of football would be at least four weeks, which rules out his participation as Milan look to prepare for the upcoming season.
Milan kick off their Serie A campaign on August 29th against Lecce at the San Siro and they were hoping to have a fully fit squad to choose from, in order to make a good start to the season after finishing third last season.
Ronaldinho’s absence is likely to be a major disruption to Milan’s preparations after his impressive form throughout all of last season when he scored 15 goals and contributed 17 assists. As Milan looked to put a stop to their bitter rivals’ (Inter Milan) walk to a treble but it proved to be in vain as Inter won all domestic titles as well as the European Cup.
Finishing third in the league means that AC Milan no longer need to play the qualifying stages of Champions League and have directly qualified for the group stages of the competition. Ronaldinho is going to be essential to their bid to restore some pride after a number of disappointing seasons, after President Silvio Berlusconi told the new coach, Massimiliano Allegri, to build the team around the talented Brazilian.
Ronaldinho will be hoping this injury is not a recurrence of the one he suffered which essentially brought an end to his Barcelona career. After having two exceptional seasons with the Spanish Champions, Ronaldinho suffered a series of muscle injuries which contributed to a loss of fitness and form, and Barcelona’s new Coach, Pep Guardiola, declared that the Brazilian was no longer a part of his plans at the club.
After moving to Milan Ronaldinho initially struggled with fitness and his first season was largely about getting some time on the pitch to regain some of his form and lose the weight he had put on while recovering from injuries at Barcelona. Unfortunately, for the Brazilian, it seems that just when he had started to look like he was returning to being at his best, he has suffered yet another setback.
AC Milan will be hoping that this disruption does not derail the progress the Brazilian has made in his first two years in Italy. If any club is going to help Ronaldinho overcome these injuries and prolong what is left of his career, it is going to be Milan after successfully using scientific methods to prolong careers of other players such as Andrea Pirlo and Paulo Maldini.
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