The words a physio says slowly. 126 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Morón have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Morón is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Morón, and both men came out saying it was fine.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Pilar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Acassuso will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Real Pilar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Enzo Franco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Pilar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Pilar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Real Pilar have done the hard part with Morón, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Enzo Franco has agreed terms with Deportivo Armenio for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Martín Perafán and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Morón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Morón they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Santiago Kubiszyn and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Bittolo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.