Detroit-Miami on March 17th was the last game played so far by Simone Fontecchio. From that moment on, the Abruzzo native never set foot on the pitch again, ending the season in the infirmary and still continues his injured status. At the beginning it was supposed to be a stop of a few matches, but the time has extended considerably and at the moment there is really no date on the return of the blue.
Unfortunately, subsequent tests revealed problems with some ligaments of the foot, with this pain in my big toe that absolutely won’t go away. Fontecchio’s physical and medical situation has obviously greatly alarmed the entire national team staff, given that the native of Pescara is certainly the star of Italy and the player on whom much of the offensive performance of Pozzecco’s team is concentrated.
Precisely the words of the Italian coach a few weeks ago have further raised the level of concern, given that there are two months left until the start of the Pre-Olympic in Puerto Rico: “Unfortunately, Simone didn’t actually play the final part of the NBA season due to the injury that struck him. And it’s a shame because he was playing fantastically. Now the first thing we need to do is give a precise assessment of his injury as soon as he returns to Italy shortly. We obviously hope that the injury isn’t serious, we’ll see but I don’t deny that I’m a little worried about Simone.”
Italy without Fontecchio clearly becomes a different type of team and certainly the hopes of accessing the Games again would be significantly reduced, given that we could find ourselves facing a Lithuania that instead brings with it its best players, Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas.
Solutions are also difficult to find at the moment, given that even someone like Gabriele Procida got hurt. This season he has come to the fore again Awudu Abass, who played a positive Euroleague with the Virtus shirt and proved to be an important element for coach Luca Banchi. Abass could return to the national team after missing out in the last three major events.
Offensive responsibilities would certainly be divided on several fronts, thinking about the possible call-ups of Nico Mannion and Danilo Gallinari, but also with a Nicolò Melli who always offers an exceptional contribution in the national team and with a Stefano Tonut who continues to grow game after game against Milan.
Then there is the Marco Belinelli chapter. We continue to talk about the captain of Virtus and his return to the blue team. There is nothing concrete, there have been no openings or even huge closures. Clearly Beli has the experience, the class and the talent to play matches like the ones the Azzurri will have to face at the Pre-Olympic, then dreaming of that Olympics which he never played as a player and which could also be an additional incentive to try again with the National.
2024-05-01 12:28:56
#Basketball #Italy #Fontecchio #injury #worrying #alternatives #scarce
