AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan could make his return to the pitch from injury against Atalanta but the Rossoneri are not going to take any unnecessary risks with his fitness, a report claims.
As has been reported by Tuttosport (via Milan News), the French goalkeeper is now a candidate to play again for Milan having returned to group training at Milanello on Tuesday.
The next training sessions in the run-up to Sunday’s Serie A clash with Atalanta will be crucial to deciding whether the calf injury has healed enough for him to start against La Dea.
It seems likely though that Milan will not risk aggravating the injury too soon and Ciprian Tatarusanu will continue between the sticks.
The signs are good though for Maignan to get some minutes before the return Champions League leg against Tottenham in London.
Maignan would assumedly be either deployed from the start or not at all on Sunday.
Tough call. Do you wait until Tottenham to make sure he gets as much healing time as possible and risk him being rusty on the technical side, or do you give him minutes against Atalanta and risk a relapse on the physical side? If he’s training fully with the group I say let him go vs Atalanta. It is important he play a competitive game to get back into the swing of things before facing Tottenham. For this reason I almost feel like if they’re not going to play him v. Atalanta then they should wait until after Tottenham to give him his first start post-recovery.
Perhaps Maignan might play vs Atalanta in the last 20 minutes. True we might be “wasting” a possible tactical substitution, but some real playing time must be important for mighty mike at this stage.
In the days of 3 subs, it’s a big investment to use 1 on a GK.
But nowadays, 5 subs often aren’t needed, I like you guys suggestion of giving him the last 20-30 mins of the Atalanta game, he’s had a long break so likely to be rusty.