What Is The San Siro Curse? Real Madrid’s Injury Crisis Explored
It’s been 6 months since the Champions League final in San Siro. One of the high points of last season has turned into a debate of sorts for the superstitious fans though. Today, we tackle the supposed “San Siro curse”
The Champions League final was probably Real Madrid’s highest point throughout the 2015/2016 season. After a boring first half of the season with Benitez, it looked like we were doomed for another trophyless season. Then Zidane came on and revitalized the team. He formed a cohesive squad that was as good defending as they were going forward.
Thanks to Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos were finally getting the freedom to venture forward to help out the attacking trident. Sergio Ramos and Pepe were no longer the only defensive players dealing with the other team in their own half. Our forwards had an extra help when it came to opportunities for goals.
This squad [pictured above], was the embodiment of Zidane’s play style as head coach. This would be one of the last times all 11 players would be on the pitch at the same time.
You see, out of the eleven players only Carvajal hasn’t been injured this season. All of the injuries have been a hard pill to swallow, but Casemiro’s injury was the one that hurt the most. He was one of our most important players, and up to his injury, he led the league in successful tackles. That’s including centerbacks, which is pretty impressive to say the least.
Naturally, fans started referring to this as “San Siro curse”. I knew it sounded familiar when I first heard it, but I couldn’t think of where I’d heard it before. A quick google search later, I found that the “San Siro curse” has been around for years. You see, prior to the final, it was used to refer to teams losing when playing there. It seems that now, it has transformed into an injury crisis.
A More Realistic Approach To The Real Madrid Injury Crisis
I’ve never been a superstitious person. You can imagine I immediately rolled my eyes when this theory started spreading around. So I did some research into why this injury crisis might have happened. I mean, it’s definitely not normal to see more than half of your team injured in the first half of the season. Usually 3 or 4 injuries in a row means that the team is going through an injury crisis, so 10 injuries is insane.
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It all comes down to the medical staff. Back in 2014, a spanish company that goes by the name “Sanitas” took over when it came to medical treatment for the team. Ancelotti was still head coach, and he really didn’t have much to say at the time.
“It’s clear that there have been too many injuries, which was also the case in my last season”
-Carlo Ancelotti
Then last season, he broke his silence. After several injuries last season, he had a couple of things to say.
In March of last year, Ancelotti told reporters, “Since the start of the season there have been 22 muscle injuries at Real Madrid. People can draw their own conclusions but at a club like Madrid the situation doesn’t appear normal.”
Ancelotti has a point. Even in his last season, the team was marred by injuries. Any competent medical staff should be able to keep players fit enough to avoid most muscle injuries. Sure, Bale’s current injury was caused by a foul that affected his ankle, but all of his earlier injuries have been related to his calf.
Florentino Perez needs to bring back the old medical staff if he hopes to win the season. It’s clear the Sanitas is not equipped or prepared to handle all of the work that comes with professional-level soccer.
He needs to make a choice: Either keep worrying about useless partnerships, or start giving the players the proper medical attention they need, because at this rate we might actually run out of players.