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.
