Terrible news for Italy! One of the best players of the Euros so far breaks his Achilles, could miss up to a year

Terrible news is pouring in from the Apennine Peninsula. Leonardo Spinazzola, one of the best footballers in the European Championship so far, has ruptured his Achilles tendon and will miss several months, possibly a whole year.

Four games played, two assists, the highest measured speed in the championship, the highest centre accuracy of any player with at least three centres and the third most frequent dribbler at the Euros.

That’s how Leonardo Spinazzola’s championship has gone so far, a 28-year-old left-back who has gone on to great success with a rampant Italy team. But he hasn’t enjoyed it to his liking. In fact, he will not be on the pitch for the last two games of the Euros.

And it won’t stop there. In the 78th minute of the match against Belgium, the AS Roma player suffered an injury that will keep him out of action for many months. An injury of this type can result in a 12-month absence from football.

This is tragic news for Spinazzola, who left the pitch in tears. He had been asking for a better engagement with his performances and in his prime, the 28-year-old will miss most, if not all, of next season.

He received a nice gesture from his teammates, who supported him with a shout-out on the plane.

Spinazzola’s injury is even sadder news when we look at his career. It’s been slowed by injuries all along. He has been at Juventus since the youth categories, but never made a significant impact and rather wandered around on loan.

After a successful season at Atalanta, Juventus decided to keep him for the 2017/18 season. However, he didn’t play for the first few months due to cruciate ligament surgery he had already undergone at Atalanta. He didn’t get back into the lineup then despite Alex Sandro. At that time, he was out for a total of 152 days.

Injuries haven’t passed him by this season either. He had four in total and missed 72 days. AS Roma thus missed him for 17 games this season.

Source: Fabrizio Romano