There is only one day left before the start of the new season, and one of Andrea Sottil’s hopes, together with all the Zebretta fans, is that Udinese will be spared from those uncomfortable inconveniences that are recorded under the heading injuries right from the start of preparation.
I agree that the factor in question is a variable that doesn’t look anyone in the face, but if the injury then becomes a constant serial, as it was for the first Udinese by Sottil, then it becomes difficult not to weigh the results with the filter of absences, more or less relevant, which in the long run may also have conditioned them.
All of this, so as not to arrive at pure recrimination, to say “what would have happened if there had been this and that”, a thought that in the Juventus case finds relevant names and numbers, given that just over a month ago, last 4 June, Udinese closed the championship by noting 101 days of total absences, spread among the 17 players who were injured during the season, with four long-term patients arriving at the end of the season.
We will find out what will have changed in a month in the first days of work at Bruseschi, but there is no doubt that Sottil will leave again without the injured players who may not have recovered during these holidays. Enzo Ebosse and Kingsley Ehizibue, for example, are two of five players to have cruciate ligament surgery at Villa Stuart last season, and they won’t see each other again for months.
Ebosse, who was injured on 18 February at the San Siro, will still have some for at least a month and a half, while the bill rises for right-back Ehizibue, who will have some until at least the end of November.
They are sure they will not start in the big group that tomorrow will carry out the first tests at Bruseschi, where Gerard Deulofeu and Isaac Success will regularly show up. Yes, but under what conditions? And here we must distinguish, because i rumors arriving on Deulofeu are not at all reassuring. Indeed, it is said that the Catalan will not be available for much longer, with an absence that could go well beyond the whole of September.
Yet the diez he underwent surgery at the beginning of February and therefore five months have already passed since the capsular reinforcement designed to reinforce the stability of his right knee which affected him so much, making him miss 22 out of 38 races.
And if anyone has doubts about the “ifs” mentioned above, it is good to review the 2 goals and 6 assists churned out in his only 16 games played. In practice, a big player was lost and the speech can also be made for Success, who missed the last 7 of the championship due to a distraction to his right femoral rectum, which he remedied precisely in coincidence with his first and only goal scored against Cremonese. It was April 23 and the Nigerian hasn’t played since then, finishing with 6 assists.
He will be there tomorrow, but here too we will have to wait for the first evaluations to understand when Sottil will be able to relaunch him as a group. Surely Success will begin with a differentiated work that could also follow Festy Ebosele, the Nigerian winger who also missed the call up for the national team due to that muscle strain caused by the collision with the goal post in Florence, against which the 2002 class crashed on May 14 at the Franchi. Adam Masina should also be at the start, who missed the last one with Juve due to fatigue.
