Marco Tumminello Ruptures ACL

Continuing in the grand tradition of Kevin Strootman, Alessandro Florenzi, Antonio Rudiger, Mario Rui, Emerson Palmieri, Nura Abdullahi, and Luca Pellegrini (I’m sure I’m forgetting a few), Roma loanee Marco Tumminello has officially joined the club, he’s ruptured an ACL! Welcome to the family, Marco, we’ve been waiting for you!

Tumminello, 18-years-old, was our 8th ranked U23 player this season, and while he hasn’t garnered as many headlines as some of his colleagues, after a decent summer with the senior club, Tumminello put himself on the Roma radar. With precious little at center forward behind Edin Dzeko, Tumminello was beginning to assert himself in the striker ranks (in terms of the post-Dzeko era), making his loan to Crotone all the more important; playing time behind Dzeko was ripe for the picking, and a decent season or two on loan could have rocketed Tumminello up the ranks.

Through his first four appearances Tumminello was looking very much like you’d expect an 18-year-old prospect to look, alternating moments of promise with frustration. In only 130 minutes on the pitch, Tumminello had netted one goal while averaging 1.3 shots per match.

So, quite naturally, he fell to the pitch in a crumpled heap in only the fourth minute in Crotone’s 2-0 win over Benevento. Tests would later reveal Tumminello ruptured the ACL in his right knee, which, quite obviously, requires surgery. As is custom, Tumminello went under the knife at Villa Stuart today, and by all accounts it was a successful procedure, racking up Roma’s Villa Stuart frequent visitor points in the process. One more ACL surgery and James Pallotta gets a free tote bag.

I have no idea what’s going on and why this sort of injury so consistently befalls Roma players, but at this point the lines between correlation and causality are looking awfully blurry.

Godspeed, Marco.