Ibra’s ordeal with Milan-bis: two interventions and 68 games missed

And to think that in the last period he has been caressing – albeit with a certain vigor – the idea of ​​renewing with Milan also for next season. We don’t know if this new physical problem will make Ibrahimovic change his mind – more no than yes… –, but it is certainly a clear sign of how long, tortuous and painful the road to return to physical integrity is. After an absence of nine months and a complex knee operation, muscle problems are to be taken into account when the pace is picked up again. But here we are talking about a 41-year-old man, the last of which was a physically demanding obstacle course. Zlatan returned to Milan in January 2020 and has been forced to stop several times since then. Thirteen different events – with two surgeries – for a total of 68 games missed. Let’s see in detail.

January-August 2020

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It is the cursed season of Covid, which bursts onto the scene in February and extends the championship times until August. Ibra celebrates his debut for the Rossoneri on 6 January and on 2 February he must already stop. Not much stuff anyway: he misses Verona due to a flu burdened by a calf annoyance. In June, calf again (right): injury to the soleus, out with Lecce and Rome.

Season 2020-21

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It starts uphill already in the autumn: Covid, which Z will later reveal to have been much heavier than what was filtered at the time. The virus takes him off the stage for three weeks with Bodoe Glimt, Crotone, Rio Ave and Spezia. The next trouble was worse: out of action for a month and a half due to a lesion to the left hamstring followed by a hemorrhagic suffusion to the soleus of the left calf. Between November and January goodbye Lilla, Fiorentina, Celtic, Sampdoria, Sparta Prague, Parma, Genoa, Sassuolo, Lazio, Benevento and Juve. Over here? Not at all. In March comes an injury to the adductor of the left thigh (three weeks, missed Udinese, Verona, United and Naples), then a resentment in the left calf (Sassuolo and Lazio) and, icing on the cake, a sprained left knee, during Juve -Milan: it’s May 9, the season ends here (skip Toro, Cagliari and Atalanta), but it’s a serious injury, which forces him to have surgery – on June 18 – for joint cleaning.

Season 2021-22

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The year begins with the aftermath of the knee sprain and related operation: skip Sampdoria and Cagliari. An ordeal that continues in September due to a tendinopathy in the left Achilles tendon: out for a month, he loses Liverpool, Juve, Venice, Spezia, Atletico Madrid and Atalanta. A period of relative calm followed, with only an overload in his left knee that caused him to miss Empoli. Then, the big problems start again with an inflammation of the Achilles tendon, right this time: goodbye for a month and a half, skip Inter, Sampdoria, Salernitana, Udinese, and Lazio and Inter in the Italian Cup. In April, a new overload in his left knee – out with Turin, Genoa and Inter in the Italian Cup – and on May 25, with the championship over and the Scudetto on his chest, he ends up under the knife again for the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate with lateral reinforcement and repair meniscal.

Season 2022-23

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It’s a tremendous blow, because Z stays in the pits for almost nine months, missing 23 games, in addition to the Champions League games where he obviously isn’t included in the list. And right now that he was savoring the return to the field and had just celebrated the goal that made him the oldest scorer in the history of Serie A, here is the new problem. A problem in the right thigh that will be evaluated from week to week. He will return, in short, according to the course. But the question marks are evidently greater than the certainties.