Welcome back: Bove’s journey back to the field

It was just a few minutes for his new club, Watford, but it still felt special. He was clearly delighted to be back doing what he loved after so long away and itching to make up for lost time. The fact that it all seemed so unlikely only makes it more welcome.

Anyone watching that Fiorentina-Inter game would have worried for his life, never mind his playing career. The distressing scenes after he fell to the ground off the ball were the kind nobody expects or wants to see at a football game. It seemed to take an eternity for emergency services to get to him and rush him from the stadium for treatment. In truth, it only took 13 minutes for doctors to take Bove to the Careggi hospital, on the opposite side of the city. Only gradually did more encouraging news filter through.

Still, there were question marks about his recovery – how long it would take and how complete it might be. The fitting of a defibrillator meant that his playing days in Italy were over due to strict regulations on such things. While it was delightful to see him back on the bench with Fiorentina, he cut a bit of a forlorn figure. Glad to be alive, of course, but struggling to come to terms with watching the sport he had dedicated his life to and being unable to take part. Like seeing something you had always longed for dangling tantalisingly out of reach.

Let us not forget that Bove was in fine form – as was his club – at the moment he was forced to take his unwanted break. He was a driving force in the Viola midfield, and there were certainly some who were suggesting the Italian national team could do with a player of his intensity and energy. Then, suddenly, it was all taken away. Fiorentina’s form stuttered as the young player began his lengthy rehabilitation process.

He appeared on the sidelines, he popped up at Wimbledon to support his good friend tennis ace Fabio Cobolli, but always with a slight hint of melancholy about him. Having lived and breathed football for most of his life, it must have been frustrating to be forced to put his boots away. Many players talk about how difficult retirement can be, even after a lengthy career – that must have been multiplied when it was being forced on him so early.

That’s why Saturday afternoon at about 4.44pm in Lancashire was a moment watched with interest and delight in Florence, Rome and much of Italy. At just 23 years of age, Bove can still have a lengthy career ahead of him – even if it cannot be in Serie A. It might not be a perfect solution, but it is a whole lot better than everyone feared on that fateful winter evening in Tuscany more than 400 days ago.

Just to watch him back playing the game felt like arriving home after a very long journey. There will be tough times to come, no doubt, but simply seeing the young Roman kick a ball again will more than suffice for now. We can sometimes get carried away about football and forget what really matters in life and how precious every moment should be. That’s why his return to action is about so much more than simply what position he plays or what contribution he can make in terms of tackles, goals or assists. Just being out there on the pitch is a victory in itself. Bentornato Edo.

@ginkers