Forget it. DP

What good will that do now anyway?

Well, obviously we need an "outside consultant". Things are getting ridiculous. We need a change in the medical staff.

Joker, wild card,...you know that expression?

Ah, yes. I had my suspicion, just wanted to confirm. And yeah, totally agreed, I can't see why he can't come every once in a while in the domestic matches, as well as get some good time in the CL. But hey, it's not like Allegri is that brilliant a man-manager. Once you're in his bad books, it's nearly impossible to come out.

In the second part of the press conference Massimiliano Allegri has reviewed the conditions of the players in the infirmary:

“Nesta‘s conditions are not OK yet. The problem is his adductor continues to be annoying. Pato had a muscle strain and given his medical history, we are still trying to understand the causes of all of these problems. I do not think he will be sent the U.S.A. for treatment. Maxi Lopez‘s condition will be evaluated and we will probably see him next week but it’s hard to see him in London.”

The tactician then conrinue describing the conditions for his midfield players:

“Boateng is recovering. Against Arsenal we started him because we were forced to, and it was an emergency. Let’s see if we can get him for the match against Lecce. Aquilani is rather better and I think he is the player closest for returning to the field. Merkel has finished the sixth of eight weeks of his reccovery process. I think Seedorf think will stay out of action for another week.”

Mauro Suma (Milan Channel's director): "Aquilani will return against Arsenal, and Boateng will return against Lecce or Parma. Flamini will play for the Primavera tomorrow against Inter."

No Boateng against Arsenal??? Now I'm starting to get scared.

Arsenal should be the least of our worries, especially in the attacking department.

The most important thing is to get everyone back by Roma.

As for the bit about Pato that Allegri mentioned, the first order of business should be to send him to the US to ge a second, third and fourth oppinion. Why keep insisting on treating him themselves when none of them know WTF they're doing

Allegri: "Antonini has some pain in his flexor muscles, and Emanuelson twisted his ankle but it shouldn't been anything serious."

Classic tale at Milan

Emanuelson twitted that his injury is nothing serious. Also, I'd play Mesbah against Arsenal. I find him more solid defensively than Antonini.

Perfect opportunity for Mesbah to step up on Tuesday against Arsenal.

Agreed.

So did they say that Prince will be back for Arsenal or is it still a doubt?

Nope, I think he'll return against Lecce. Which is a huge bummer, considering Muntari can't play in the CL and Ambrosini is suspended. Basically, we have only 3 midfielders available for London: Van Bommel, Nocerino and Emanuelson.

And 3 strikers + Pippo?

Has there been any word on Maxi?

Maxi will be out, I think. Aquilani should be called up, but he's not ready to play yet. At this point, I suppose a 4-3-3 is inevitable. Shaarawy-Ibra-Binho?

Robinho in behind most likely

I say if Nesta is fit, we go out with a 3-5-2

Play Abate and Mesbah as wingbacks. With Nocerino and VB center of midfield, Urby, Robs and Ibra roaming upfront.

Atleast that would give us an option off the bench

Sadly, I don't think Nesta is fit.

This is just a classic simptom of this season. A player who was supposed to be 100% weeks ago, still isn't fit nearly a month later.

Same thing with Boateng and Aquilani.

So why people wonder about someone like Pato, is beyond me.

He's an injury prone player, so this is just the type of environment he needs to basically stay out all season. Same goes with Aquilani and Nesta now.

And we're only seeing the start of it with Boateng.

It's really funny when I see Pirlo these days, playing practically every minute for Juve this season, while last season he was injured for its majority. This is one of the major reasons why I don't want us to sell Pato. As 75% of the problem comes from our medical team and not the player himself. If Pato is in fact sold this summer and he's suddenly fit for the majority of the season than I don't know what would be left to say about Milanlab

How about Flamini ? Is he called ?

This is one of the major reasons why I want us to sell Pato. Either the quacks stay, or the duck!

If the quacks stay than all the others will be bound to have another injury filled season, not just Pato

I know. But that's how things are. The way Kaka and Ronaldo consulted their NT doctors should have been alarm enough. Little was done then, and little is being done now, even though we have pretty much half of our team in the infirmary as of this writing. Even players I never thought of as particularly injury prone.

If the quacks were doing their job well, we'd have minimum injury times, much faster recovery, and not many recurring injuries. Imaging having a full team (like other big clubs), we'd be storming the castles week in, week out.

All teams have injuries, even the big clubs .. It just differs in our case as everything is under a microscope via MF

That said, I do concur that our medical team 'might' not be doing their job 100%. But I will not go down the line and state that everything they do is to worsen our player's conditions.

Kaka and Ronaldo have had an injury plagued career, the later forced him into retirement.

P.S. Maybe we need witch doctors at Milan Lab

Nah, the amount of injuries we've had over the last few years cannot be compared to any other big club's. something's wrong with our medical team and if it takes witch doctors to overcome this problem, so be it!

Ehem, we changed the lead doctor, didn't we?

Um, that's why I said little. I mean, with the amount of injuries we've had these past few seasons, it's practically end-of-the-world alarming. It's a good thing (sheer luck and I must say nice coaching and manly performances from the team) that we are still alive to tell the tale.

Take any other big team, and they will have a few players out of order every now and then. But almost half the first XI out, and when they are back, they break down again?! No, sir, this requires some drastic measures. Either get another backup medical team on board for constant second opinions, or change the training regime, anything!

Allegri: "Boateng is recovering, if everything goes well he should return for Parma"



This is just too much! Wasn't it Lecce only a few days ago? Speechless.

Did I misread or did you praise Allegri?

No you didn't. I've said it a few times before, I'm 50/50 when it comes to Allegri. He's got his faults, and sometimes they show really bad, and he may not be an awesome man-manager, but he's a good coach as well. And frankly, how he'd handled the lengthy injuries to key players, without uttering a word has to count for something.

Had we any other person in-charge, he'd probably be brining up the missing players week in, week out.

I have to say, my respect for Allegri is growing by the day.

I still fault his playing philosophy but that's a matter of taste. I'd take him over Leo (the coach NOT the man) anyday.

The way he handled the whole Juve moaning thing, and in a very civilized manner hinted that they should just STFU and play their way to the title was very becoming of a Milan coach. +20 points.

I agree with you Jack. But Leo, the coach, really isn't a challenge.

We've had worse Tbh I was worried we would have another Zacch.

But he lost 15 points yesterday for our first half and gained 5 for the second. I think I need to put an Allegri meter in my signature.

Great idea! Do it, do it, do it!

Flamini is out of the match vs. Lecce on Sunday. He hasn't recovered from the injury sustained to his left thigh during the Primavera derby.

Brilliant

This is really out of this world.

Ah phooee!! At this point nothing surprises me. In fact, if half of our team got injured, I wouldn't even blink.

Yes, surely, but this is insane now. We must do a change.

What interests me is the fact that our players don't just get injured. They get injured again and again, and once they are scheduled to return, they get injured again. Pick a player, any player, Nesta, Pato, Flamini, Boateng, Aquilani, Zambrotta, Mexes, Antonini, Ambrosini, Seedorf, Bonera. That's an XI then and there.

As you said earlier in this thread, Fillipo, this is just...mind blowing. Probably the only reason nothing concrete is being done in this regard is that we're still winning somehow. Had we faltered, injuries would have been the most discussed topic from the management. But as you (and others have) said again and again, something must be done. Otherwise, this thread is going to outpace the "Happy Birthday Thread" like there is no tomorrow.

An odd injury or two, is to be expected, every club has them, all the time. But this is a crisis situation. I still blame the San Siro pitch, uneven as it is. Heck, I was reading, the last 9 injuries to Pato happened in San Siro. You don't read about our players getting injured during training, as you do while playing a match in our stadium. I just hope we can inter can get together and fix the pitch, lay a synthetic one like the Emirates.

I don't think it's the pitch. Inter would have suffered equally then; but maybe it's a combination of all together: medical incompetence (mostly), training routines and the San Siro pitch.

Well Barbara has come out and said that Milan need a new stadium. Apparently there will be some new facilities in the San Siro by 2015...but she has said that a new stadium is sort of a priority.

I can agree with that, and that's what I initially meant. It's a combination, surely has to be. A few years back, there were times when we suffered, but surely not as badly. But you don't get to this stage, this level of injuries with say medical incompetence alone. Also you have to include injury-prone players themselves to the mix.

As for the pitch and inter, well from what I've followed, they've got injury problems of their own past few seasons. Probably not at our level, but for that I'll have to dig deep and see how many players they had out. One thing I'm sure of, though, is that we'll have to fix this mess if we are to stay competitive or attain greatness.

The next few years domestically and Europe are going to be tough, with a lot of teams finding their feet now.

It would be kind of heartbreaking leaving San Siro. It is our home, our special home. None of those copy-paste new stadiums can top that.

It's a desperate situation, I have no more adjectives that could describe how pissed off I am at our medical team.

I would actually recommend reading the Emirates Stadium wiki. Really informative. They had to start planning for it right from the mid 90s. So nearly 10 years to raise the budget, get the permissions etc.

And I think no stadium feels like home till you actually win a bit in it. And naturally we would need a top architect and and maybe some smart designs inside. Perhaps our friends Messrs. Dolce and Gabbana might have a few suggestions.

I'd hate it if we moved out of the San Siro to a generic 50,000 seater like Juve did.

Sure things can be done to improve the situation. San Siro will be undergoing renvoations for the Euro bid IIRC, the turf situation is going to be taken care of for next season as well.

The bigger problem is that we do not own it.

San Siro will be renovated, there's no need to build a new stadium. However, it'd be great if Inter get lost and we purchase the stadium for ourselves.

Is that possible?

Because even if it is a joint effort with Inter and the clubs buy it together, it would still be a huge improvement. The matchday revenue for both clubs would really improve things for both teams.

With a couple of renovations and improvements, San Siro is one of the best stadiums in Europe. I can't even imagine us going out on a big CL night in some generic stadium