Fikayo Tomori is the latest player to enter the treatment room at AC Milan, and the numbers of the club’s injury crisis are almost beyond belief.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) reports this morning that when adding together the days missed by each player due to injury, Milan have reached 800 days of absence which is certainly the highest in Italy and one of the highest in Europe.
It’s almost 27 months, over two years. How do you get to the calculation? The highest figure is for Bennacer, for whom the days of stoppage in May and June were not calculated: he was out for 150 days from July 1st – the formal start date of the season – to November 27th. Five months.
He is followed by Mattia Caldara, who hasn’t been seen for 102 days, and Marco Sportiello, who is better but has not yet been available for a match. Pierre Kalulu, Marco Pellegrino, Simon Kjaer, Rafael Leao and Malick Thiaw are also on the sidelines.
The concept is all too well known to every Milan fan: injuries are the first problem, the first domino that makes all the others fall. If Pioli had had one, two, three unavailable per match, he would have managed the emergency. With five, six, seven regular absentees it becomes impossible.
So why does this happen? It is difficult to give a guaranteed answer – various factors often add up – but there is certainly a part of the responsibility of Pioli and his staff. The club attributes most of the responsibility to Pioli and his staff (including head trainer Matteo Osti).
The injuries, more than the on-field performances, are today the first element of tension, the main reason for a possible dismissal in the event that things do not improve and rapidly.
What will Milan do to resolve the issues? In the summer it may be possible to redo some pitches at Milanello, to avoid a tour of another country five days after preseason begins, but it is clear that the heart of the reasoning lies in the choice of the coach (new or old) and in the training methods.
It’s hard to think about changing things so radically now, but some physiotherapists will change in the summer. The inquest is underway, and soon things will be decided.
Milan have had more than their fair share of injury problems for many years now. I remember the bells and whistles which accompanied the unveiling of “Milan Lab” – supposedly the cutting edge of medical care for footballers – was followed by a season full of injury problems. IMO, the whole medical / fitness regime at Milan needs to be bulldozed and reconstructed from scratch in the summer.
Is 800 since the beginning of the calendar year or the season ?
Combined numbers of days of absence of each player.
I am glad that they also look into pitches and stuff, we haven’t been a especially healthy team before Pioli either.
Can’t solve injuries by signing new players as they’ll get injured too (see all our new players).
What’s that Einstein said about insanity?
This many injuries is a sackable offence the question is who should be sacked.
I would rehaul the meds and physios. Keep Pioli. See if fitness and injuries improve in 6 mo’s. pioli is gone in the summer anyway
I wrote this some time back. Osti track record should really be look at more carefully..needless to say iniury-wise it was bad year for Inter:
“IKWYDLS. 16 November 2023, 15:30 at 3:30 pm
I did some digging (very time consuming) and cross checked Inter’s 2016/17 team and the time Osti spent as their athletic coach at the time (about a year or so). Here’s the injuries which occurred during that time below. It’s interesting to note alot of them are muscular. However, must caution this is only one year so we can’t really directly associate the injury to the coach (unless across time but it’s time consuming), doesn’t really account for players simply being injury prone themselves and other factors.
Santon: 26 days, Hamstring
Gagliardini: ankle injury and hamstring injury, 37 days total
Ansaldi: adductor, 41 days
Miranda, muscle injury, 47 days
D’Ambrosio: internal ligament injury 28 days (but right after Osti left
Nagatomo, muscle injury, 16 days.
Joao Mario, muscle fatigue 10 days
Kondogbia, muscle fatigue, 10 days
Medel, muscular problems, knee surgery, 55 days
Brozovic, foot/toe injury, muscle injury, 28 days total
Palacio, muscle strain 30 days
Icardi, muscular problems, 23 days
Eder, Muscle fatigue, 3 days
Melo, knee bruise, 24 days
Ranocchia, Achilles tendon problems, 11 days
“
You’re not gonna spam this on every injury-related article, now are you?
Do you keep a copy of all your comments? I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who does.
You should probably keep a list of your comments. It would help you see the problem with your posts.
Every post I’ve seen from you the past few days goes out of your way to defend Pioli and offers no facts or truth in return despite the glaring problems that are happening and KEEP happening under Pioli and are quite evident.
Even in this thread, you’re for firing all “meds and physios” while still advocating for keeping Pioli. Why does Pioli keep getting free passes? No one knows, you push blame to others but refuse to blame Pioli.
I’m tired of Pioli ball. I’m tired of inverting 11 players and hoping for the best. I’m tired of no defense because every player is inverted. I’m tired of never practicing or learning from set pieces. I’m tired of our single play consisting of Maignan kicking the ball as far as he can up to Leao and hoping for the best. That’s it. That’s Milan’s strategy. That’s Pioli ball.
At least the original poster brings facts to the conversation. All you do is brown nose Pioli at every turn. Seriously, are you his brother or something?
Have to disagree with the first part here. Its ok to point out stuff and keep the convo cordial. And also to change ones mind about things over time.. I didnt take offense to the comment because it could be a misunderstanding too. I agree with him from time to time but also disagree and I haven’t really had anything that really stands out as bad intent as the arguments are still based on solid reasoning
Oh no. I thought I only did it twice 🤷♂️. I did it for one but there was a reply I made on another, the problem is the relevant comment is on another unrelated article while the relevant article doesn’t hv the relevant comment😅.
Nothing wrong with a repost if it’s on point which yours is.
Seems like Osti’s the man for the chop!
Yea I thought it was just here and the other article. But I could see why it can seem as spam so I’d offer an apology there. That being said I did raise a slightly different point on both occasions of the repost. The info was relevant in both cases.
Not sure I’d go straight for the chop for Osti but the clues do point there. I did mention my analysis should be done for the other times he was on other teams and also probably compared against other physios to see if he’s different in a statistical sense. That would make it more complete but it’s time consuming (even for the one year above, it was alot of time). I’ll skim his other appointments and give that at a later time. But yea, my gut feeling is that he has alot of questions to answer to put it lightly