26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Crotone scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Maj Blažič was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Crotone know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad10 Dec 2040
Words at Ural 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guram Tsitaishvili 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.
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.
Tobías Rodríguez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ural 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Danila Tretyak was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural 2 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Sep 2040
Words at Ural 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Romanini 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.