Corinthians midfielder reveals injuries in second club stint | OneFootball

Midfielder Maycon, who came up through the ranks at Corinthians and won the Copinha in 2016, is in his second stint with the club from Parque São Jorge, having been loaned by Shakthar Donetsk from Ukraine since March 2022. His return generated high expectations among Corinthians fans, but so far it has been marked by a high rate of injuries.

His longest period of inactivity occurred between April 2024 and February 2025, when he was sidelined treating a cruciate ligament injury in his knee, in a 2 x 0 loss to Juventude, away from home, at the start of the last edition of the Brasileirão.

Photo: Rodrigo Coca/Agência Corinthians

In an exclusive interview with Trivela, Corinthians' number 7 said that all the injuries he suffered had a reason. Since his return, the athlete has visited the medical department on seven occasions due to injury, five of them muscular. In this last injury, Maycon even exceeded 100 days being out.

“I don't blame anyone, we are subject to everything, and the football player has this understanding. But if we look at it, every time I got hurt there is always a reason. And I will never come to talk about why it was this, plan A, because of this or that. I always take responsibility, but of course this hindered my return to the club a bit,” he began.

He was then asked about his time in Ukrainian football – mid-2018 and early 2022 – , at the time when the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out. At that time, Maycon was 24 years old and was experiencing one of the best phases of his career. The midfielder spoke about how the context in Eastern Europe impacted his career.

In March 2022, Corinthians activated Fifa's war clause and the athlete returned to Brazilian football. His re-debut for the club from Parque São Jorge happened shortly after his return to Brazil – which contributed to his physical decline – in April 2022, against Always Ready, from Bolivia, away from home, for the debut of the group stage of that year's Libertadores.

I return from a war where I spend almost six weeks without training with the group. Of course, we do some gym work, but without the specific training for match preparation. I return and after four or five days I was already debuting, 45 minutes, at altitude. And then we start a large sequence of games and some things start to happen that the body is not prepared for.

On the occasion, he played for just over 45 minutes, being called up at halftime. Five days later, he started among the starters in the first round of that year's Brasileirão, in a 3 x 1 victory over Botafogo, in Rio de Janeiro: “The player doesn't have time to recover 100%. We recover, then there are the marathons, we have to adapt and return to the games 100%. In the team I'm in there's no room for 80%, 90%, you have to give 110%, 120% of the disposition you have on the field. And sometimes these minor injuries I was having were because of this.”

“Psychologically it affected a little. It affected my family more, especially my son. My older son didn't fully understand what was happening, but we had reports at school of things that he reported there and never told us, but said at school, which was passed on to us. So, he had things that he lived in the war and brought with him. My wife also had a bit of this. I had less, but maybe because I already returned to Corinthians and had this whirlwind of emotions,” he continued.

His season with the most games at Corinthians since his return to the club happened in 2023, when he took the field 58 times, equaling the year 2017 – heptacampeão brasileiro. Maycon credited the high number of games to physiotherapist Bruno Mazziotti, who at the time had returned to the club that same year.

“These injuries have been happening in 2022, a little in 2023. But in 2023 I manage to play a lot, largely because Bruno Mazziotti gave me a very good condition to reach these levels. On the day I had the injury, in the game against Juventude, it was one of the hardest days of my life.”

Shortly before suffering the injury against Juventude, for the Brasileirão 2024, Maycon had already been cut at the last minute from the game against São Bernardo, in ABC Paulista, for the third round of the Copa do Brasil, with a thigh injury.

“Prior to this injury, I had a thigh injury against São Bernardo. I was coming from a small discomfort, but that game was unique in the Copa do Brasil, where the club needed to pass. I was not fit to play that game. I went to the game knowing there was a big risk and I ended up getting injured in the warm-up.“

“I was already healed, but not 100%, but the club needed points in the Brasileirão. It was the beginning, but we knew it was a risky Brasileirão for the club, because of the restructuring it had. We know that in the Brazilian Championship every point is important and we were coming from a draw with Atlético-MG at home, we go to the game (against Juventude) and I end up getting injured,” he concluded.

In total, Maycon has 234 matches for Corinthians (178 as a starter), with 112 wins, 65 draws and 57 losses – just over 57% of effectiveness. In addition, he scored 16 goals for Alvinegro and won four titles: Brasileirão (2017) and Campeonato Paulista (2017, 2018 and 2025).

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.