André Silva returns, São Paulo near full fitness after four years | OneFootball

After having Sunday (1) off, the São Paulo team began on Monday (2), at the Barra Funda training center, their preparation for the new classic against Santos, at 8 PM (Brasília time) on Wednesday (4), at Vila Belmiro, this time for the Brazilian Championship.

In this morning's activities, the good news was the information that forward André Silva started transitioning with physical preparation on the field.

The number 17 has not played since August 24 of last year, when he left the 2-0 victory over Atlético-MG at Morumbi with a posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injury and an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) strain in his right knee.

There was consideration of putting Silva through surgery, but the player himself refused the recommendation and preferred to undergo conventional treatment.

Now, the Tricolor has only one other forward in its Reffis, Ryan Francisco, who is recovering from surgery after an anterior cruciate ligament rupture and meniscus injury in his left knee.

André Silva's return to the field is an indication of São Paulo's success with changes in its medical department.

After a tumultuous 2025, with a record number of absences, the Reffis seems to have found its way and went through January without any new injury reports. That is, forward Paulinho ended up suffering a ligament strain in his left knee, but officially the club treats him as a youth player.

It had been a long time, a very long time since São Paulo had so few people in its medical department. Since April 2022, the club hadn't had a month without new injury cases.

And it was on April 23, in the 1-1 draw with Bragantino, away from home, still in the first round of the Brasileirão, that it was officially the last game of the Tricolor without any absences.

In this morning's session at the training center, coach Hernán Crespo divided the players into two groups: those who played longer over the weekend did regenerative exercises indoors, while the rest worked on the field.

The field training began with strength exercises led by the physical trainers. Then, the players formed three teams, which competed in a reduced space.

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