More detailed analysis now made public on Sandro Tonali injury

News earlier this morning that Sandro Tonali will miss tonight’s key Italy v Ukraine Euros qualifier.

The Newcastle United midfielder had been due to play at the San Siro on his first return to the stadium since transferring to Tyneside, before then another trip there a week later.

Those reports from Italy this morning describing the issue as a ‘slight muscle injury’ detected after having trained in recent days ahead of the Ukraine match.

However, now Football Italia have followed up (see below) those initial reports and detail that Sandro Tonali ‘underwent a medical examination at the Columbus Clinic in Milan on Monday. Exams highlighted muscle fatigue and Newcastle were immediately informed about their midfielder’s condition.’

I’m no medical expert and wondering what ‘muscle fatigue’ would be defined as, I did what anybody else would do, I searched online:

‘Muscle fatigue is the decline in ability of muscles to generate force. It can be a result of vigorous exercise but abnormal fatigue may be caused by barriers to or interference with the different stages of muscle contraction. There are two main causes of muscle fatigue: the limitations of a nerve’s ability to generate a sustained signal (neural fatigue); and the reduced ability of the muscle fiber to contract (metabolic fatigue).’

I’m guessing that ‘muscle fatigue’ covers a wide range in terms of how serious, so we can only hope that for Sandro Tonali this proves to be at the lower end and he will quickly feel 100 per cent. However, no getting away from the fact that for the player to be reportedly missing such a massive match for Italy tonight, Sandro Tonali isn’t feeling great as things stand.

What is for sure is that he has played a lot of football these past 13 months.

As well as playing for the Italy senior side and starting all four Premier League games for Newcastle this season, Sandro Tonali had a very busy 2022/23 season with AC Milan, with 12 starts in the Champions League along with his Serie A and domestic cup commitments. Then this summer Tonali was asked to drop back down to Under 21 level, to captain Italy at the Under 21s Euros finals, which were won by Anthony Gordon and England.

Anyway, here’s hoping that Sandro Tonali will quickly be feeling in better shape once he is back home on Tyneside.

Football Italia reporting – 12 September 2023:

‘According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Sandro Tonali has been diagnosed with muscle fatigue and his club Newcastle United have already been informed, so it remains to be seen if the Italy international will be available to meet Milan in the Champions League next week.

Tonali has not been called up by Italy coach Luciano Spalletti for tonight’s Euro 2024 qualifying fixture against Ukraine at San Siro.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Tonali underwent a medical examination at the Columbus Clinic in Milan on Monday. Exams highlighted muscle fatigue and Newcastle were immediately informed about their midfielder’s condition.

The Magpies will travel to Italy next week, meeting Milan at San Siro in the first game of the 2023-24 Champions League group phase.

According to Gazzetta, Newcastle will assess Tonali’s injury once he returns to England but at this stage it’s uncertain whether he’ll be available for next week’s meeting with his former club.’