Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori limped away from Italy’s defeat to Germany on Thursday night, fearing a potential injury after a bad slip on the pitch.
Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori started Italy’s Nations League match against Germany on Thursday night, hoping to help them to a home win in the first leg of the quarter-final tie.
Things didn’t go to plan, with Germany coming from 1-0 down to lead 2-1 as the clock ran down, but it only got worse for Calafiori in injury time.
As Italy chased back to try and prevent a Germany counter-attack, Calafiori slipped and fell awkwardly. The physios were brought on to treat him, but he left the pitch unassisted.
With only a minute left and no substitutions remaining to Italy, he wasn’t officially substituted.
All the same, Calafiori could be seen limping away from the San Siro after the game. When reporters asked him about his condition, he responded: “I don’t know yet.”
Those comments were echoed by Italy coach Luciano Spalletti in his press conference after the game.
“We still don’t know if he’s injured,” Spalletti said. “Ricky feels something strange at his knee but we still don’t know.”
Calafiori has already had multiple knee injuries with Arsenal this season, so there will always be fears of another extended lay-off in situations like these.
But it’s also true that Calafiori hasn’t necessarily been the best judge of his own injury situation in recent times.
Mikel Arteta admitted that the defender had become emotional after Arsenal’s win over Leicester City in September, fearing a serious knee injury, only to get the all-clear for the next game.
With any luck, this will be another instance of nothing more than a scare for the Italian 22-year-old.
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