Day off, Chile trip and Corinthians derby: São Paulo with much to sort | OneFootball

São Paulo’s week started off extremely tense. The big news this Monday (4) was the surgery already undergone by Lucas Moura to repair a complete rupture of the calcaneal tendon in his right leg.

The Tricolor No. 7 returned to the team in the match against Bahia this Sunday (3), was on the field for only 20 minutes, and got injured once again. The game marked the player’s return to action after recovering from fractures to two ribs suffered on March 18, during the clash with Atlético-MG, also in the Brasileirão.

In addition to the idol, two other squad members also underwent imaging tests this Monday and had injuries confirmed. Substituted still in the first half of the match in Bragança Paulista (SP), right-back Lucas Ramon was diagnosed with a muscle injury in his left calf.

Unable to be substituted, center-back Alan Franco spent the final half of the second half against Bahia merely making up the numbers on the field. His exam showed a slight strain in his right adductor. According to São Paulo, both players have already begun treatment. It is highly unlikely that either of them will feature in the derby against Corinthians on Sunday (10), in Itaquera, in the Brasileirão.

With so much turmoil, the squad was given the day off today and will only return to training at Barra Funda on Tuesday morning (5), before then heading to Santiago, Chile, where it will prepare to face O’Higgins on Thursday (7). The day before, the team will still hold one final session at Universidad Católica’s training center.

After returning to Brazil, the squad led by Roger Machado will hold two more training sessions at its training center on Friday (8) and Saturday (9), wrapping up preparations for Sunday’s derby against Corinthians.

PACKED MEDICAL DEPARTMENT AND ARBOLEDA BACK

The club’s three new injured players should therefore be unavailable for Roger this week, with a greater chance that at least Alan Franco will be available for the Majestoso at the weekend. It will depend on his progress during training.

Before facing Bahia, São Paulo was already missing center-back Rafael Tolói, with pain in his left calf, as well as Pablo Maia (working on his fitness after surgery to repair fractures to his nose and face), Marcos Antonio (injury to the right rectus femoris muscle) and Maik (muscle pain), who remain out while undergoing treatment at Reffis.

In addition to all these problems putting the team together, São Paulo is also experiencing a decisive moment this Monday in the Arboleda case. The Ecuadorian center-back finally decided to show up and returned to Brazil, where he is negotiating his future with Tricolor after abandoning the club for a month.

If supporting São Paulo was ever easy, nowadays there is not a single calm day at the Morumbi club, whether on or off the pitch.

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