Davide Zappacosta Tears ACL

Well, it happened again.

Add one more to the injury list for the Giallorossi. This time, it’s on-loan fullback Davide Zappacosta. Roma announced the injury on their website, saying:

The club’s medical staff have issued the following update on the condition of Davide Zappacosta.

During Friday’s training session, defender Davide Zappacosta suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, in a non-contact incident.

The club would like to offer its sincerest sympathies to the player, and wishes him a quick and full recovery.

Losing Zappacosta means that Roma’s full-back contingent is down to Alessandro Florenzi, Leonardo Spinazzola, Aleksandar Kolarov, and Davide Santon. It also makes it highly unlikely that Zappacosta will stay with the Giallorossi at the end of his loan spell from Chelsea, which is set to expire in January. This will leave Roma short a right-back once again, and with Devid Bouah out with an ACL tear as well, there isn’t an immediate answer to who could even begin to fill that spot in Roma’s squad.

If there weren’t questions about Roma’s medical staff and training regimens before, there certainly are now. Roma has lost fifteen players to ACL tears in the past five years, eleven of them defenders. There were rumblings that the turf at Trigoria was the issue, but I’m not convinced that’s the only issue. Something needs to be done here, by Paulo Fonseca, by James Pallotta, by Gianluca Petrachi, by the groundskeeper, anybody.

I’m tired of losing players to ACL tears. I’m sure I’m not the only one.