Zlatan Ibrahimovic drummed up his teammates, took the floor at the moment of great triumph – awe-inspiring silence around him. “stay cool guys I won’t say goodbye“, shouted the egocentric star striker through the dressing room after the championship with AC Milan and caused a storm of jubilation. But a few days later these words could be invalid, the self-proclaimed “God” is threatened with the end of his career.
Ibrahimovic threatens a break of seven to eight months
At the age of 40, the body goes on strike – for the long term. As Milan announced, Ibrahimovic will be out for seven to eight months due to an operation on his left knee. During a long-planned intervention in Lyon, the anterior cruciate ligament had to be reconstructed, and there was also a need for improvement on the meniscus. The Swede is facing the longest break of his career, the year 2022 has already passed – and the biological clock is ticking against him more than ever.
His contract with the Rossoneri expires on June 30, and now even a one-year extension at significantly lower salaries is faltering. Such a long break so close to your 41st birthday? An eternity. “For six months I hardly slept because of the pain. I’ve never suffered so much on and off the pitch. I made something impossible into something possible“Ibrahimovic wrote on Instagram on Thursday.
Half a year without an anterior cruciate ligament on the pitch
He explained that he played for half a year without a cruciate ligament. Got pain killers every day, 20 shots, fluid drained from knee every week. The joint had simply been swollen since the beginning of the year. “I had only one goal in mind: to make my team-mates and the coach Italian champions, because I had made a promise to them” he continued to write.
Ibrahimovic had repeatedly taken breaks from the game because of the pain in the second half of the season, he only completed ten training sessions. The goal quota still spoke for him, in just 1006 minutes of action the center forward scored eight goals in Serie A.
On his milestone birthday in October, he compared himself to Benjamin Button: “I was born old and I will die young.” His body is now telling him something else – the end as a footballer is probably not far off.
Source: sid