AC Milan defender Alessandro Florenzi has admitted that he wanted to ‘give up everything’ when he was trying to recover from his serious injury.
Speaking during an interview with Star Casino Sport, the Italian defender was very honest when he discussed how hard it has been to get back to full fitness.
The 31-year-old has only made two appearances this season for the Rossoneri as he suffered a hamstring injury at the end of August 2022. He is getting back to full fitness now though and is expected to be back in the team this month.
He admitted that there were times when he considered turning his back on the sport as it seemed too hard to recover.
“It’s an injury that you hardly ever see in this sport. The first few weeks were not easy, I was very discouraged. There were some moments when I wanted to give up everything: I shut myself away, surrounded by the affection of my family – the most important thing for me – who helped me to get out of the mental loop. Then when I saw the field and the ball again, the desire to start again came back,” he said.
He could even be involved in the Champions League second leg against Tottenham in which the Rossoneri have a 1-0 lead. He spoke about how good the performance was at San Siro.
“The lads put in an important performance, a performance that the whole group needed. We went through some difficult times. The team played a superb game, the return leg is coming up and we have to work even harder to continue this dream,” Florenzi said.
Florenzi also talked about the goals of this season now that there is some hindsight to work from.
“We started with the goal of winning the Scudetto, the one with the second star. Obviously there are also the opponents: should Napoli continue at this pace, we would be the first to congratulate them. Then we set ourselves the second goal: qualification for the next Champions League. We will do everything to relive evenings like the one with Tottenham,” Florenzi said.
Finally on his relationship with Stefano Pioli, Florenzi said: “With him, I grew up, he taught me to bring out the best of me in every training session. He spurs you on with words and with looks.”
