Some injuries are caused by impact, but right now, Milan are
greatly impacted by injuries. All of these injuries have both immediate impact
as well as long-term impact for the club, and none of it is positive. And it’s
not just the physical injuries to the players themselves, either, which are
crushing enough on their own. The injuries actually impact the mentality of the
whole team, the results, as well as the long-term financial and rebuilding
plans that were in place.
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| Fear is not a good look for you, General |
The most disturbing aspect of this injury plague was that no one was
talking about the why. But finally, after ten starters are carrying
some level of injury, La Gazzetta dello Sport reported today that
Gattuso and the club are looking into the reasons for so many injuries. Too
little too late, in my opinion, but at least there is some hope that they will
address the issues and the injuries will slow down.
But that is also a testament as to how the injuries are
impacting the mentality of the club. I saw what looked like fear
in Gattuso’s eyes during the Real Betis match as more players were
injured. And the fear wasn’t for his job. He seemed generally worried about his
players. In a recent postmatch press conference, Rodriguez
spoke of the fear of watching his teammates drop like flies to
injuries. It is not uncommon for an injury mentality to help increase the
number of injuries as well, as playing with fear makes you more likely to be
injured.
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| Is it the celebrations causing the injuries? |
The results are already being impacted by injuries, that is
kind of a no-brainer. Everyone knows that having a healthy starting eleven
gives you the best advantage. I mean there’s a reason that Gattuso has barely
rotated the starters at all, rarely subs early, and has continued to play them
even when they were carrying a small injury. That reason is that they are the
best we have, and we have the best results with those eleven players starting.
As Gattuso has been forced by injury to start other players, the performances
and results are slipping. So are our hopes of Champions League qualification
this season. No surprise there, but this is the thing most fans focus on.
However, it is the long-term impact that I am the most concerned
about. Before the body count rose to exponential levels, Maldini and Leonardo
seemed to have very specific ideas for January’s transfer market as well as
next summer and beyond. And those ideas seemed very good, too. Paqueta is
already on his way, he’ll start training next month. The rest of their ideas
were being put on hold pending UEFA’s sanctions, which we should learn about
tomorrow. But they were being fiscally responsible while looking to rebuild properly
with quality players.
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| What good does it do to have them back if they are just replacing injured players? |
The injuries are likely to change all that, though, because
if UEFA doesn’t give us a brutal transfer ban, Milan are going to have to go
bargain hunting for any players available that can stand on two feet to replace
our long-term injuries. They may be “bad apples” or not really have the
qualities we want, but beggars can’t be choosers. (And Gattuso has to be on his
knees begging every day right now to be able to field eleven healthy players.)
Whether or not they are Serie A quality players or even the kind of player
Milan needs to rebuild are completely secondary right now. So our rebuilding
gets pushed back that much further, and we may get stuck with players on our
roster we don’t want long-term, but can’t exactly get rid of. Sound familiar?
I hurt for our players who are hurting. Not only are they
warriors who want to play in every match, their bodies are broken, and some of
the injuries could impact their careers. Particularly for the youngest players,
this is so disturbing to think about. But for Milan, their injuries impact
everything from mentality to results to rebuilding. Just when we thought we had
finally caught a break and were aiming to return where we belong, another
catastrophe befalls the club. Sound familiar? Welcome to impact injuries.
This post inspired by the music of NIN’s
“Hurt”
Our next match is
Serie A Week 13
Lazio vs. Milan
Sunday, November
25 • 18:00 CET (12noon EDT)