Davide Calabria and Rafael Leao were forced to withdraw from AC Milan’s clash against Lecce yesterday afternoon. Today, both underwent tests at Milanello and an injury has been confirmed for the Portuguese winger.
Leao was subbed off after just ten minutes, having pulled a muscle after a sprint, and Calabria was replaced at half-time. Far from ideal for Milan, who already have many players on the sidelines, but at least the captain has avoided an injury.
As stated by Milan to the media, the tests confirmed that Calabria is suffering from an overload in his left thigh but there’s no lesion. Leao, on the other hand, has a first-degree (minor) hamstring injury. As a result, both will remain at Milanello during the international break.
Pioli is hoping to have Calabria back already against Fiorentina, while the goal for Leao appears to be the Dortmund clash. The break has come at a good time for Milan, in that sense, but it’s also clear that the injury struggles need to be solved once and for all. They have already had 24 injuries this season and that is simply unacceptable.
After four games without a win in the league, Milan desperately need to claim all three points against Fiorentina.
Pioli…give them an entire week off. No training. No coming into Milanello, other that treatment. Stay home. Get some sleep. Relax.
Doom and gloom…
So Leao will be out for 3–4 weeks.
From what i can see a grade 1 strain can be up up to 3-4 weeks but also sometimes only down to a matter of days but i guess only time will tell how long it will take but the break comes at the best possible time in regard of him.
With our medical team, I think it would be very optimistic to think he can return before the Dortmund game. Let’s see how things will play out.
Yeah Doki i wouldnt get my hopes up too high either but im also just stating what i could find on such injuries.
I said they should start Florenzi and Okafor and give Calabria and Leao some rest. Folks here said rotating so much is not good. How are we now? Better?
Some people have never played any physical sport, so they won’t realize this issue.
If you can’t start Florenzi and Okafor against Lecce then when can you? What is the point of having these players? These injuries, as well as yesterday’s result are squarely on Pioli. It’s time Milan consider moving on from the caretaker coach.
What if you’re both right? It’s a Sophie’s Choice. That said, the reason why Pioli is in this position to begin with is because he didn’t rotate previously.
its true. Leao could’ve came on after 60 min, if need be, and put pressure on the already tired Lecce def, but mastermind pioli had other ideas
Oh, and besides these injuries we now have a suspended Giroud who might get up to a four game ban due to his words to the referee.
At least he will face less criticism here until he returns to continue getting them.
Many wanted it, here it is.
scout7calcio tweeted about how Klopp, in order to avoid too much injuries, is forced to constantly rotate his team, sometimes starting with an entirely different 11 from the previous game.
A high pressing, high block type of approach requires simply a LOT of depth and some type of players, otherwise it would be too much to be able to sustain. It can work for some games or even a entire season, but sooner or later, the team is going to collapse.
Now, the medical staff is certaintly to blame for our injury crisis, and some of our players are old and/or injury prone, but perhaps it’s time to accept that we neither have the depth, nor the quality players necessary to maintain this style of play (which we don’t seem to properly use anyways), and Pioli is no Klopp or Guardiola either.
Perhaps it’s time to accept to use other styles of play to avoid crisis.
Pioli deserves to be flogged for blocking Singo deal. Florenzi is not good enough, that’s why he was overlooked. We are paying for Pioli’s mistakes. One defender gets injured, and we look to the midfield for remedy, when we had a chance to get a right wing-back, who would have doubled as a central defender, when needed. If results don’t improve, he’ll surely get the boot.