Riccardo Calafiori is on his way back to Arsenal after the calf injury he sustained in Italy’s win over France proved more serious than expected.
Speaking on Friday, head coach Luciano Spalletti was optimistic that the left-back would recover in time to face Israel tomorrow but they’ve since sent the defender packing.
Calafiori suffered the injury in freak circumstances. He was running back towards goal when Ousmane Dembele tumbled in the air and raked his studs down the back of both the Arsenal man’s legs. As he fell to the turf, his ankle seemed to jar at an awkward angle.
🚨🔴⚪️ Riccardo Calafiori leaves Italy camp as the staff will take no risk after his injury against France.
Calafiori will return to London and he will be assessed by #AFC medical staff. pic.twitter.com/w7rrhs4yrt
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 8, 2024
Obviously, it’s a massive worry for Mikel Arteta ahead of next weekend’s north London derby. The Spaniard is already without Mikel Merino, whose shoulder injury will sideline him for up to two months, and Declan Rice, who is suspended for last weekend’s ridiculous red card.
The Interlull can get absolutely f*cked.
Update: Romano is briefing that the injury is “just a knock and “not serious”.
🔴⚪️🇮🇹 Sources insist Riccardo Calafiori injury is not serious and it’s just a knock, nothing worrying.
Arsenal also didn’t want Calafiori to take any risk and he will be assessed next week. pic.twitter.com/4MlnvF3ivF
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 8, 2024
Well of course it was worse than they first expected. I too hate interlulls. At least this will be one less player saying to Ben White “ u miss out by playing for your country”..
By some good fortune we didn’t move on Jakob kiwior…status quo from last season hasn’t changed… Kieran Tierney is also back in training… Would be more bothered about Declan’s suspension….you wonder who plays at 8…will be a gritty match…Declan and merino are our best duellists in midfield…TP is past his best…
Kai Havertz will play LCM. If Jesus is not fit, Trossard will likely play 9. I don’t hate that against Spurs at all.
Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, TP, Haverz, Odegaard, Saka, Trossard, Martinelli.
That’s most likely your team next weekend at the big white toilet.
Bench:
Sterling, Jorginho, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Nwaneri, Neto, maybe Jesus, maybe Calafiori.
Not too bad, I think.
I don’t think we can count on Calafiori or Jesus for this match…
no worries, Sterling will score the winner and then get sent off for overcelebrating
Damn it
It’s a classic
It’s like the Wenger years. New signing 1 – fractures shoulder in first training session. New signing 2 – freak injury during Interlull. Referee controversy.
What’s next? A teenager doing three great games before he’s clattered by Stoke?
Oh the trauma of years gone by
we carry the weight of history
A yoke on our necks
Like beasts of burden we trudge
Plowing new furrows on our brows
As the months turn to years
Of accumulated strife
Or as Descartes once said…
“I get injured, therefore I am an Arsenal player. “
Haha etc!
Bolton in the league cup hopefully will not revive the ghosts of Sam Allardyce and Kevin ‘elbows’ Davies.
4 new signings already 2 major ones injured. Next up Sterling or Neto????
I had honestly forgotten Sterling. Hugely disappointing summer and now the only good things from it are injured. Hell.
sterling for the winner at spurs
Yes, he can.
I think the reports mentioning his calf and not his ankle might be a good sign. Given it was an impact injury, it’s likely to be a contusion, though a more serious one than initially thought.
They way I read this is that his withdrawal is precautionary. It looked on the replay like Dembele’s leg basically collided with the back of his leg, and that sort of awkwardly drove his foot into the ground. I didn’t see a twist. So I’d be most worried about the small bones of the foot if he’s still reporting pain, but I doubt anything’s broken from that kind of impact.
Not sure, could be a calf strain which itself (as happened to Kevin Durant) might be a precursor to an achiles tear, which is probably the most serious single injury you could have as an athlete. An ankle sprain is often just a few weeks out and done.
That said I’m happy he gets to rehab back with us, between his calf and Merino’s sheep our physios could start a farm soon.
The Achilles Tear could be a precursor to Lupus Disease, which might lead to Osteoporosis. Specially the Junior form of Osteoporosis which can afflict Athletes has also been known to cause severe forms of melanoma, that can and mostly does lead to a greater release of DMT in to the blood stream of all who complain about transfers and potential injuries causing all forms of hyperbolic and deranged reactions. We’ll need to call in the specialists…
I’d say a large percentage of our supporters suffer from Munchausen syndrome on behalf of our players
Can I voluntarily opt into that DMT release?
Actually feel like all who complain about transfers and potential injuries could use much more of it
A brief aside on international football. If you like the world cup and you like the Euros, I think you also have to accept that international teams need to periodically train and play together, for obvious reasons. It’s also very meaningful for most of these players to represent their country. UEFA devised the nations’ league to make these interspersed fixtures more interesting and more meaningful by putting teams in weighted pots with a relegation/promotion system to do away with the Germany vs San Marino type fixtures and a group stage + tournament format for added jeopardy as you go. It’s… Read more »
Easy solution. Do away with international football.
Complaining without offering solutions to the problem, wanting to burn it all down without a plan for how to build it back up. These are not unique to football discourse.
Oh, here we go again. Why always us?
Arsenal are back! I wondered where we were flying off to last season.
On a serious note though, no shit this is a all largely due to the intense non-stop playing schedule for these players over the past two years. Fuck Sepp Blatter
So Ceferin and Infantino have nothing to do with this?
Sepp, only Sepp. It has always been Sepp. It will always be Sepp.
When you suddenly face 11 pyjama wearing super athlete players on FIFA Clubs….it’s Sepp..he has sent his troops.
It is always Sepp
Septic Bladder.
Love it 👌
Death to interlulls!
That why we should have finished our transfer business earlier…
Finish early…get injured early….catch up with the season safety
Well… That sums it up I say
What good can come of a player who has ankle ligament damage to not have proper scans and treatment and wait until it is even more inflamed before letting him board a plane
Bro let me tell you about airports now it’s not the 1990s anymore, they scan everyone before getting on the plane, honestly. So they’ll probs scan Califiori too (even tho he can afford a fasttrack ticket they doesn’t mean you can skip the scanning stage just the queue to get there), before they let him board the plane. I don’t know about the treatment he receive from the airport staff before getting on the plane but in my experience if you nice to other people they generally nice back to you. Especially older people. Although the thing with older people… Read more »
Maybe I’m just too emotional about injuries during international games at stupid times of a season.
I get what you are saying about airplanes, my point was more about the timing of things from the Italian FA side, surely such an awkward injury needs to be carefully managed and for a 42m player and arguably Italy’s star player, it wouldn’t be worth risking aggravating an injury by dilly dallying ‘just in case he makes it’
They should have sent him home straight away
International football is like clogging away in the Championship at a low standard. Ben White has a refreshing outlook though.
Italy were very good albeit v a terribly managed France team under Deschamps (aka Southgate).
Califiore was smooth and slick and smoochy and brilliant until the inevitable.
Looks to be the real deal
How much money are each of these games worth to fifa?