Lautaro Martinez admits to playing through injury for Inter in 2022-23 | OneFootball

Inter talisman and captain Lautaro Martinez has admitted he played on through injury for most of the 2022-23 campaign, which ended in a Champions League final loss to eventual treble winners Manchester City in June 2023.

El Toro, who is currently away with Argentina for the Copa America in the United States, spoke to South American media outlets and discussed his battles with a niggling problem in his foot two seasons ago.

The 2023-24 Serie A MVP admitted that he was suffering with issues in his ankle and that he was often playing with anti-inflammatory injections  in order to make himself available for selection.

The issue was so severe that he could have gone in for surgery in and around the time of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Martinez revealed that he also played the 2023 Champions League final in pain, but said that he gritted his teeth and was able to get through the full 90 minutes.

Lautaro Martinez: ‘I gritted my teeth and got to the end of the season’

“I’m fine now, but the year of the World Cup I was on the verge of having an operation, I was having injections,” Martinez told the press, reported via La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I played with anti-inflammatories all year with Inter, even in the Champions League final. I gritted my teeth and got to the end of the season. But my ankle hurt too much,” he said.