Back on the pitch in a few days
Successful coach undergoes heart surgery
December 30, 2025 – 2:25 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Maurizio Sarri has already won the Europa League and Serie A as a coach. Recently, however, the Italian has been able to think less about sporting success.
Successful coach Maurizio Sarri has successfully undergone heart surgery. According to his club Lazio, Sarri was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and underwent surgery in a hospital in Rome. Catheter ablation was performed. Thin tubes, so-called catheters, are pushed through blood vessels into the heart. They are used to specifically destroy or freeze over tiny areas in the heart tissue that are responsible for dangerous cardiac arrhythmias.
Lazio’s team doctor Dr. Italo Leo present. “The coach will be back with the team in the coming days,” the statement said.
So it can be expected that Sarri will be back in the coaching bench next Sunday when Lazio meets Scott McTominay’s SSC Napoli in Serie A. Lazio is currently eighth in the table and is nine points behind the Champions League places. The training will be led by assistant coach Marco Ianni for the time being, according to the Italian media.
Sarri has been Lazio’s coach since the summer of this year after being fired by the same club in March 2024. The 66-year-old is known for having worked his way from the depths of Italian football to Serie A.
He even won the championship with Juventus Turin. In the meantime, he was also coach of Chelsea FC for a year, with whom he won the Europa League. A trademark of Sarri is his addiction to cigarettes. The Italian himself once said that he smokes around 60 cigarettes a day.