Milan, Leao injured: what’s the Portuguese situation like?

It will be four days of anxiety (understatement). Of waiting and praying. Of hopes and curses. And at San Siro there were minutes of silence. An unreal silence descended on the Meazza when the Meazza saw Leao on the sideline, beyond the sideline, touching his right thigh with a grimace.

No one had noticed, until that moment when it became dramatic in its obviousness to everyone. And everyone thought: but him… Cynical? Yes. But understandable, considering the stakes. Meanwhile it was dawn – minute number 11 – of a vital match for the ambitions of the Champions League 2023-24. Against Lazio, Milan was forced to win to stay hooked to the train of the first four, and the prospect of having eighty minutes ahead without its hero was not the most comforting. But the head of the seventy thousand Rossoneri obviously didn’t stop at Lazio: the leap forward a few days was automatic for anyone. Oh my God, the derby. And now how do we do it.

Highlight

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The situation is “work in progress”. Work in the infirmary, call to the miracle. The Portuguese will take the instrumental exams on Sunday morning, and then we will understand more. But it is difficult, very difficult now to make a prediction on whether or not he will be present in Wednesday’s first round against Inter. The problem is that here we are not talking about a blow, but about a muscle problem. Rafa felt the adductor of his right thigh pull, and here you enter the field of hypotheses, until there are no instrumental responses. There may be a simple contracture, an elongation, as well as an injury. Which, in turn, has varying degrees of severity. The cameras that framed him immediately after he came out, with the ice pack placed between his groin and adductor, returned a player with a worried expression. The drawn face. Comprehensibly. An injury that he knows as a joke, because it happens right at the climax of the season, and this season Rafa had never stopped due to physical problems. At most, the sports judge had stopped him.

Options

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Leao felt a muscle pull after a number on Marcos Antonio and then on a progression of about thirty meters which ended on Provedel’s exit. That’s where Rafa stopped and transformed the early summer of San Siro into a polar circle for a few minutes. At one point Pioli himself yelled at him to get out. Right now it is useless to go too far, so we need to limit ourselves to the news. And if his warm expression did not bode well, there are different sensations in having heard him speak at the end of the game when, answering Mediaset to the question “How are you?” he said: “Good, good”, adding in Portuguese: “Nada de grave”. Superfluous translation. Pioli also indulged in moderate optimism: “he had a fatigue or an inkling, it shouldn’t be anything in particular, he is always evaluated the next day at a muscle level – he told Dazn-. Before arriving here he was serene, he felt good. Then, it is clear that in these muscle-related situations it will be important to make assessments and understand tomorrow. Maybe it feels different when hot. From what he told me I don’t think it’s a particularly serious thing, he seems to have stopped in time. Sure, we play in four days and then we’ll see. It will be important how he is tomorrow. He was very serene at the end of the game, this bodes well for me. However, the important thing is to play football well and we can do it even without Leao. We can play a great game even without him.”

Who in his place?

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If Rafa doesn’t make it, the most logical option, also based on what has been seen in the very latest outings, would be to use Saelemaekers in his place or alternatively Diaz, with the Belgian on the right. The other options – from Rebic to Origi – seem much less viable at the moment.