André Silva returns, São Paulo near full Reffis recovery after 4 years | OneFootball

After taking Sunday (1) off, the São Paulo squad began preparations this Monday (2) at the Barra Funda training center for the new derby against Santos, which will take place at 8 p.m. (Brasília time) on Wednesday (4) at Vila Belmiro, this time for the Brazilian Championship.

In this morning’s activities, the good news was that forward André Silva has started transitioning with the fitness staff on the pitch.

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 a strain in the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) of his right knee.

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

Now, Tricolor has only one other forward in its Reffis medical department, 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 pitch is an indication of São Paulo’s success with the changes in its medical department.

After a tumultuous 2025, with a record number of absences, Reffis seems to have found its way again and went through the month of January without any new injury cases. Well, forward Paulinho did end up suffering a ligament strain in his left knee, but officially the club considers him a youth player.

It had been a long, long time since São Paulo had so few people in its medical department. Since April 2022, the club had not 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 was, officially, the last match Tricolor played without any absences.

In this morning’s training session at the CT, coach Hernán Crespo divided the players into two groups: those who played longer over the weekend did recovery exercises indoors, while the rest trained on the pitch.

The training on the field began with strength exercises led by the fitness coaches. Afterwards, the players formed three teams, which faced off in a reduced space.

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