Giuseppe Rossi: How injury has blighted the career of the former Manchester United forward once compared to a World Cup winner

Giuseppe Rossi: How injury has blighted the career of the former Manchester United forward once compared to a World Cup winner
Giuseppe Rossi is a footballer whose career has been hampered by injury.At the age of 31 he is now a free agent and been offered a lifeline by the club he left as a teenager to help get him a new team.3

Giuseppe Rossi playing for United in 2006

Manchester Uniteds interim manager and Rossis former team-mateOle Gunnar Solskjaer invited the forward to train at the clubs Aon Training Complex.In the last eight seasons of his career he has played just 112 games and scored 37 goals with seventeen of those coming in the 2013/14 campaign at Fiorentina.To put that into context, Harry Kane has played 290 games and scored 171 goals for Tottenham Hotspur, and his loan clubs, in that time.3

Giuseppe Rossi playing against Manchester United in the Champions League for Villareal

Spurs are one of the clubs reportedly interested in offering him a deal following the injury to Kane.The American striker quit Manchester United as a teenager after failing to break into the first team despite Sir Alex Ferguson wanting to keep hold of him.Ex-United coach Rene Meulenstein expressed regret over letting him go in 2007.Personally, I would never have let him go because you could see that he was going to be a major star in the Premier League, Meulenstein told the Daily Express in 2014.He would have been the equivalent of David Silva, Samir Nasri and Juan Mata, players who play in the middle of the lines. He signed for Villareal in La Liga and that is where he started to make a name for himself as a prolific goalscorer.A number of top clubs would have undoubtedly been looking at signing him at that stage when he was reaching his peak.Things were going well for Rossi in Spain, earning him comparisons with World Cup winner Paolo Rossi, and he enjoyed four productive seasons, which peaked in 2010/11 where he scored 32 goals in 56 games.

Blessed . #ManchesterUnited #happyplace #smile #memories pic.twitter.com/T6BD4Qf3Lt— GIUSEPPE ROSSI (@GiuseppeRossi22) January 16, 2019

A series of devastating knee injuries blighted his career after that season.The first of those bad injuries came in October 2011 when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.He suffered a relapse in April 2012 and joined Fiorentina but did not play again until May 2013.Rossi sprained ligaments in his right knee in January 2014 and missed another four months of action.A fourth injury to his right knee in August the same year saw him on the sidelines for another 12 months.During a loan spell at Celta Vigo in April 2017, he ruptured his ACL in his left knee.

The injury problems that affected Rossi

Ocotber 2011 – torn ACL in right kneeApril 2012 – recurrance of same injuryJanuary 2014 – sprained ligaments in right kneeAugust 2014 – fourth injury to right kneeApril 2017 – ruptured ACL in left knee“Every time it happened when I was performing at a high level and was destined to have a great season – it has always stopped me from doing even greater things, Rossi told the BBC in July.“When I sit back and think about it, I get annoyed and you start going around in circles in your head.“Every injury has its own story – it took something away, if it’s a World Cup, the European Cup, or a big transfer.“But the dream doesn’t stop and I am here today living the dream that I have always wanted to and keep trying to gain what I lost.”3

Giuseppe Rossi back in training with Manchester United

He was let go by Genoa at the end of last season and also failed a drug test following their match against Benevento in May.Rossi tested positive for the banned substance dorzolamide and faced a years ban from the game.He was given a reprieve and handed just a warning.The striker turns 32 in February and this may be his last chance to have a spell injury free and finish his career in style.

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