More bad news for American born striker Giuseppe Rossi. who will see a knee specialist later this week to confirm the extent of the injury he picked up during Fiorentina’s 1-0 win over Livorno on Sunday.
Initial reports said the Italy international had suffered a badly sprained knee, before a club statement confirmed he has suffered a sprain in his right knee. The issue is that Rossi has twice undergone surgery to reconstruct the cruciate ligaments on the same right knee.
The statement read:
“For the correct evaluation of the entity and prognosis of the injury, in the next few days Giuseppe Rossi will visit specialist professor Richard Steadman, the same surgeon that carried out the second operation of his cruciate ligament in his right knee.”
Angry Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella condemned Rinaudo’s challenge on Rossi which resulted in the injury, while director of sport Daniel Prade said:
“We’re concerned, because Giuseppe is a special lad who lives for football. Of course there is the fear that his right cruciate ligament is affected, but let’s wait for tests to confirm the extent of the injury.
“We’re disappointed by the unsporting behaviour shown after the foul which forced him to leave.”
But Rinaudo hit back at that claim, promising to apologise to Rossi and adding:
“It was just a normal tackle — there’s such a fuss being made about it purely because it’s a player like Rossi. I didn’t apologise to him because I was immediately surrounded by some Fiorentina players, but I’ll call him later to do so.”
He has been backed by his coach Davide Nicola, who said the challenge
“has been made out to be a premeditated attack on Rossi.”
“People are saying we should be ashamed, but all I saw was a normal tackle like many others in the game,” Nicola added.
At first glance it did look like Rinaudo took out Rossi around the knees, making the tackle look worse than it was. But looking at it again via the replay it is clear that Rossi’s stid got stuck in the turf and that is where the stress on the knee came from.
Here is hoping that the injury is just a strain and nothing worse. Rossi has been terrific for Fiorentina this season and his 14 goals this season not only lead Serie A, but was possibly setting Rossi up to go to Brazil this summer.
