Pierre Kalulu has lifted the lid on the psychological aspect of his injury absence as well as the things that it put into perspective while he was away from his AC Milan team-mates.
The Frenchman suffered his injury during the 2-2 away draw against Napoli, and it was confirmed pretty quickly that he had suffered a serious injury. Milan announced that he would be out for around four months after surgery to repair a ruptured tendon.
The road to recovery probably seemed incredibly long to the former Lyon man back then, but like his fellow defenders Fikayo Tomori and Malick Thiaw he completed the process week by week and is now back available to Stefano Pioli.
He made his return during the recent win against Empoli, and Kalulu gave an interview to Milan TV which was published on the eve of the game against Slavia Praha in the Europa League. We have translated his comments before.
“It was a long few months because I was away from the team, from Milanello. You need to slow down a bit and get your head right,” he began.
“I’m just looking at these two months as experience and a new perspective on work and how you work. When you’re injured, you feel a sense of responsibility but it changes your personal point of view, how you worked before and after, at home too.
“All these little things that don’t seem important from the outside, but, at the end of the day, make the difference on the pitch. They make the difference in terms of wellbeing.
“When you get to the point of being ready to play, and you get to the moment that you’ve waited ages for, you realise that four months might be long, but you’ve been playing for many years, and you never forget.
“You can always do more in terms of your alertness and so on. That was my focus. On my comeback, I’m trying to bring renewed energy.
“After the wait, in every training session and game, I want to play and win. I just want to make my comeback and give my all for the team in every game and training session.
“Keep pushing at any given moment, for me, that’s how you make it to the top.”
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