Ronaldo’s Milan teammates have relived his serious knee injury last
night as the hitman flies to Paris for surgery.

The injury-blighted marksman’s career could be over after he severed a tendon in
his knee while jumping for a ball against Livorno at San Siro last night.

The horrific injury was reminiscent of April 12, 2000 when his knee buckled when
making his comeback for Inter against Lazio.

Today, Ronnie has flown to Paris’ Pitie Salpetriere Hospital to be operated on
by Gerard Sailant – the same man who treated him in 2000 – but the best-case
scenario is a period of nine to 12 months out of the game.

“You could immediately see that it was something serious as his expression was
the same as it was in Rome,” defender Daniele Bonera explained.

“We hope that he is ok, but fear that it is a bad one. He is a golden lad and I
just hope he still has the desire to react and fight back. Whatever is written,
he has always given himself to this team and is a great professional.”

Goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac didn’t have the best view of the injury, that took place
in the Livorno box, but he could see the severity of the problem.

“I didn’t even know who it was who had gone down at first, but then it became
clear,” the Australian international recalled.

“I am so gutted. He is a great person who doesn’t deserve this. It’s hard to say
what will happen now, but a severed tendon is very bad.”

“We are all devastated for Ronnie and now we just have to be there for him,”
Georgian star Kakha Kaladze said.

“On the pitch you could see it was a big problem immediately. It was such an
unlucky thing to happen.”

The three-time FIFA World Player of the Year needed 20 months to recover from
his 2000 knee injury. Such a lay-off at this late stage in his career would
probably cause him to hang his boots up.





Channel 4


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