Medical Degrees? Who Needs ‘Em?

Before one sees a doctor, they usually do a little background check, right? Word of mouth, check the net, ask for a physician’s reference…something like that. Well you would think the process might delve a little further when it involves your 23 year old midfield phenom who has been categorized in the words of the owner as “priceless”. At least to make sure it’s not some guy giving free prostate exams in the back of his van in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Alberto Aquilani tweaked a groin in October doing things that didn’t involve any vans and/or Wal-Mart, so he was sent to a rehab facility in Casenatico, where he had gone last year to do much of the same. On Friday, instead of getting a report on his progress, Roma was greeted with the news that the police had raided the facilities and shut it down because it’s being run by a guy with zero medical qualifications. Fucking brilliant. Yeah, why don’t you send a big chunk of your future to some witch doctor who has an online diploma in happy ending massages from the DeVry Institute.

As a Roma fan, this is totally expected. This is the club that couldn’t cure a hangnail. The “luck” with injuries is just astoundingly bad, and has gotten to the point where every game it’s expected someone will go down for a month or two. And it usually happens. Simone Perrotta has been injured on 3 separate occasions, out for a month apiece each time. The club is apparently being run by Dr. Seuss.

Aquilani, who is just the latest in a long line of Roman born midfielders which has Europe drooling and tripping over itself (Chelsea, Barca, Real, Arsenal, ManYoo, yadda yadda yadda), was supposed to be out 2 months at most, closer to the 6 week mark. That was October 2nd. Fourteen weeks later he hasn’t even been fully training with the team yet. In fact, in all the reports he’s just tagging along practice with the team masseuse (if it was a leggy Swede we could understand, but it’s not, and I think he looks like Borat, which is bad for everybody). What’s more, this is the second time Aquilani has suffered from similar issues in the last two years, and last year was sent to the very same facility for rehab. You think maybe a real doctor might have helped the situation?

Alberto isn’t the only athlete to get treated at this clinic, which isn’t football specific, and hopefully we’ll see a Mitchell report-esque list of names so we can figure out whether this clown had any affect – adverse, positive or otherwise – on their careers.

As for Roma, this is one of the stupidest moves this hierarchy has made, and I can imagine they’ll make the Patriot Act look like a quick skim the next time they outsource a player for treatment.

The Offside Blogging Team can also be found at these Offside blogs:
Roma | World Cup | LA Galaxy | Serie A | Les Bleus | Gli Azzurri | Serbia

Some Related Stories:

Category: Europe, Serie A, World Football