The Turkish midfielder injured his adductor after a substitution after 11 minutes and immediately asked for a change from the bench. Then the defender also knocked out
When it starts raining, it often ends up hailing. The night in Milan, not even too cold (6 degrees), took away a couple of Cristian Chivu’s key players, two starters injured in the same first half played for a long time by Inter against Liverpool. First, Hakan Calhanoglu collapsed to the ground while touching the inside of his thigh: already in the 11th minute he was forced to ask for a substitution with large hand gestures. The first diagnosis speaks of a contracture of the right adductor, perhaps the Turk stopped in time to avoid major problems. He left the field to Piotr Zielinski who sat in the middle of midfield, with the same directing duties as Calha.
OUCH, ACE
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Not even 20 minutes had passed and the same scene, albeit in a different context and in a different part of the pitch, involved Francesco Acerbi: the left-footed defender was chasing that devil Ekitiké and immediately raised his arm at the first annoyance he felt, still attempting to intervene to block Slot’s attacker’s cross. When the ball came out, he too made broad gestures towards Chivu who, having understood the trend, immediately told Yann Bisseck to warm up: it was the 31st minute and the German took his natural place as right-hand man with Akanji simultaneously moving into the middle. Among other things, the Swiss was also recovered at the last minute after he had not trained on Monday due to a flu condition. In Acerbi’s case, the first club bulletin spoke of strain on the flexors of his right thigh: a situation, therefore, more complicated than his teammate. “How am I, so-so…”, said Ace passing through the mixed zone.
exams
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Both the defender and the midfielder, however, had spent 90 minutes on the pitch against Como last Saturday: they will be re-evaluated today by the medical staff at Pinetina and then in the next few days, also because it takes some time after the first pain to give an in-depth evaluation. The Italian Super Cup scheduled in Saudi Arabia is really just around the corner and time is running faster than Ekitiké: Chivu’s team will leave for Riyadh in exactly seven days starting today, December 17th, to be on the pitch against Bologna on the 19th. There doesn’t seem to be any chance for Acerbi, while for Calha at the moment there is a tiny hope, even if everything is still conditioned by clinical investigations. Seeing a half with two injuries of this level, many at the San Siro thought about how unfortunate certain matches are against the reds of Liverpool: in the 2021-22 Champions League, precisely in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 at Anfield, both Stefan De Vrij and Marcelo Brozovic were injured. Even then, two starters ended up knocked out in one fell swoop, complicating everything.
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