Gabbia injury: Milan on edge after hamstring scare against Sassuolo

Matteo Gabbia lasted barely twenty minutes in the clash between Sassuolo and Milan, matchday six of Serie A. It was his first league start of the season, after shaking off an ankle problem that had cost him much of last season and the start of this one. On a Sassuolo counterattack, with a long ball sent in behind towards Laurienté on the left, Gabbia stretched his left leg to get there first, missed the ball, and went down immediately clutching his left hamstring. He could not get back up: he left the field on a stretcher, visibly shaken, with Amorim sending on Koni De Winter in his place.

There is little certainty yet on how serious the problem is. Tuttosport writes that the fact Gabbia was unable to leave the pitch on his own feet points to a muscle tear and therefore a stint on the sidelines that will not be short, though it leaves the precise diagnosis to the scans in the coming days. Calciomercato.com is more specific, though that should be read with caution since it comes before those scans: it reports the defender could be out for several weeks, possibly even a couple of months before returning, an estimate the outlet says is pushing Milan to also look at free-agent defenders on the market. Sky Sport confirms the club is waiting on the results of the scans, without adding a timeframe.

For fantacalcio purposes the news hits anyone counting on Gabbia as a fixed starter at the heart of Milan's defence. In our listone the defender carries a quotazione of 6 and sits in the lowest band for centre-backs, where a big score still earns the full fascia bonus: more of a gamble than a sure thing, and now another physical setback pushes him further away from the pitch. Anyone who picked him up hoping for a bounce-back after the ankle injury has to wait again, especially if Calciomercato.com's estimate is confirmed by the scans, since that would mean a long absence rather than a game or two.

For now, the open slot at the centre of Milan's defence goes to Koni De Winter, who came on for Gabbia in Reggio Emilia. In the same department, the players already getting regular minutes (Pavlović and Gila chief among them, by our quotazioni) remain the safer picks for anyone filling out their Milan backline for the coming matchdays. It is worth waiting for the scans before any final call: the difference between "a few weeks" and "a couple of months" changes a lot about who to keep and who to replace, and only the clinical diagnosis, not the first impressions from the touchline, will settle it.