The Inter at the start of this season is showing several problems that rarely manifested under the management of Simone Inzaghi. In particular, the numerous muscle injuries suffered by the Nerazzurri at the beginning of the season, more than in the past three years, are especially under discussion.
The reason, as already admitted by Inzaghi in the press conference last August on the eve of Genoa-Inter, is due to the different preparation carried out by the team during the pre-season. Indeed, changes were made compared to the past aiming to prepare the team for the long haul, to withstand a season of 70 potential matches.
Without rushing into judgments, a little over a month since the start of this new season, the only results produced by the new preparation are two: a general condition lag compared to past seasons, but above all the numerous muscular discomforts suffered by the Nerazzurri players. Let’s look at each case in detail.
Let’s start with Bastoni, who was out injured after Inter-Atalanta but luckily recovered without any stop. The defender had already experienced muscular fatigue during the pre-season that had made him miss the friendly with Chelsea. Fatigue also hit Federico Dimarco in the final minutes of Monza-Inter, forcing him to watch his teammates in the tough away match in Manchester from home.
In the backline, de Vrij has also been a victim of injuries. Hindered from 9th August by a relapse in the femoral bicep, the Dutchman only returned to the field on 15th September. Like Bastoni, after Inter-Atalanta Calhanoglu also didn’t finish in the best condition due to a hip problem. After two appearances for the National team, the Turkish midfielder missed the match with Monza as a precautionary measure.
Let’s continue with two other midfielders, Asllani and Barella. The Albanian experienced fatigue in the last days of pre-season before the start of the new season. The former Cagliari player, on the other hand, suffered a strain to the rectus femoris of the right thigh in the second half of the derby and will be out for at least two weeks.
Davide Frattesi also suffered some muscular discomfort while on national duty, which he immediately got over when he returned to Milan. While Zielinski had to follow a personalised regimen for two weeks after suffering a muscular strain to the rectus femoris on 4th August.
Among the new signings, Mehdi Taremi was also forced to stop last August 1st due to a muscular relapse in the femoral bicep of the left thigh that made him miss the last part of the preparation. Four days before feeling the minor strain of the medial vastus of the left thigh that Marko Arnautovic suffered in another case of muscle injury.
Finally, we close with captain Lautaro Martinez. The Argentine also suffered muscular fatigue that kept him out of the squad for Inter-Lecce.
Acerbi and Buchanan do not fall into these cases, however. It is true that the defender skipped the first days of group preparation, but only due to the surgery undergone last June because of the pubalgia that plagued him at the end of last season. The injury to the tibia that the Canadian suffered in the middle of the Copa America with Canada, on the other hand, was traumatic in nature.
