Zaniolo leaves the field in tears after the rupture of the knee ligaments (photo ANSA)
ROME – A background appears on Nicolò Zaniolo . The young yellow and red talent had gone out a few minutes before the end of Rome-Turin last Sunday for a blow to the right knee. Knee that had swelled in the following hours. Zaniolo had done a differentiated job for most of the week and then returned to the team on Thursday so he was ready for what would be his last game of the season. The right knee in fact, after a run of fifty meters, gave way: rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament, with associated meniscal injury. Six months of stop and (almost certainly) goodbye to Euro 2020.
Maybe just a coincidence, maybe you could wait a little longer without taking risks. To blame the accident for this episode is practically impossible even if in Rome there are many precedents that could make you think otherwise.
It all began on 9 March 2014 at San Paolo in Naples when Kevin Strootman injured his left knee after a few minutes: from there begins a real ordeal for the Dutch midfielder who will be forced to undergo another operation to put his knee back shabby.
Apart from Strootman there are seventeen other cases linked, in the Giallorossi house, to the rupture of the cruciate ligaments of the knee. Nine of the Primavera youth, the rest in the first team (in no particular order: Florenzi due, Rudiger, Mario Rui, Karsdorp, Emerson Palmieri, Zappacosta and Zaniolo). Medical changes, training systems, refurbishment of training camps were not enough. A curse that continues and seems to find no solution.
Experts are divided on the reasons for these incidents, which are well above the average found by the UEFA reports among the teams participating in the Champions League. Many, however, find in the difference that there is between the grounds of the Olympic stadium and those of training in Trigoria , as the most plausible hypothesis of this infinite sequence of injuries that has been affecting the Giallorossi in recent years. The Olimpico lawn is composed exclusively of real grass while those of Trigoria are a mixture of natural and synthetic grass. They are only hypotheses though.
The expert's opinion
The Agi consulted Dr. Pietro Monachino , orthopedist and sports physician, a well-known professional in the competitive world and expert in foot, ankle and knee injuries. "The increase in the incidence of ligament rupture is certainly linked to" extremely dynamic football ", in which you play with greater intensity, and, if you think of top-flight formations, the fact that between league cup, national cup and European and national teams athletes have to play more games than in the past. The players train less and rest less than they should and this increases the risk of injury. Sometimes there is also the not perfect state of the pitches. The advent of some training surfaces, such as the synthetic one, which leaves the knee less sliding space, also weighs. Zaniolo? My impression from television is that it is not linked to an anomalous movement due to the field ".
Source: Blitz Quotidiano