In football, a ligament injury can mark a career. He knows Tomas Pozzo, who again – the second in less than a year – is faced with a devastating scenario: the rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Now in Godoy Cruzhis new club, before Independent, where it was formed. In the jargon of this sport, it is summed up in four words, which are tied to months of anguish and slow rehabilitation: “He broke his cruciates,” it is often said. Last night, a few hours after his team’s great victory against Racing (2-0 in Avellaneda), the 23-year-old left-hander opened his heart and wrote a long post on social networks, in which he exposed his pain, his fears, but also his desire to get ahead.
Godoy Cruzthrough the head of the club’s medical department, Matías Roby, had confirmed before the game that Toto’s injury – his usual nickname – was a break in the plastic from the previous operation. anterior cruciate ligament of the left knee. “He is a 23-year-old boy, these are things that happen today in football,” said the doctor on Dos de Punta, a Mendoza radio program. The look of a doctor, who naturally takes in something that he often observes. On the other side, Pozzo’s suffering. “Thousands of things are going through my head and I am very weak,” he wrote, at the beginning of his message.
The former Independiente midfielder, who had just arrived at the Mendoza club, must undergo surgery and it is estimated that it will be out of competition between 6 and 8 months. He suffered an injury similar to the one that postponed him during 2023 in Independiente. The injury occurred during the first half of the game that Tomba played before the Union on date 5 of the League Cup, on Tuesday, when the midfielder rested his extended leg behind him during the dispute for the ball.
Pozzo’s crying at the time of his injury
Member of a group of players who appeared first in difficult moments for Independiente, Pozzo added 63 games and 4 goals since his debut, on November 22, 2020, in a 0-0 home draw against Central Córdoba in Santiago del Estero, for the League Cup. That day he played 13 minutes, the last of the game: he was 20 years old, which he had turned on September 27. He was born in Adrogué, he is 1.68 meters tall and his left foot went through all the club’s youth teams before reaching first team.
On March 13, 2023, he a bad movement in trainingand a few hours later the diagnosis was known, identical to the one now: rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in the left knee. “My soul is broken. “I will be far from what I love most in this world and I dedicate my entire life to it for a long time,” he wrote at that time. He returned to play on August 16, ahead of schedule, and against Central Córdoba, in the Argentine Cup. It was 45 minutes of happiness. Since then, he barely had another 7 minutes of action that year, against Huracán. He left Independiente at the end of 2023: Godoy Cruz paid $1,000,000 for 70% of the pass.
Pozzo’s social media posts
Since he arrived at Godoy Cruz, ready to start from scratch in a club that was going to give him opportunities, Pozzo lived up to the expectations of Daniel Oldrá, the coach. He participated in all five games, until the time of injury against Unión came. In his debut (2-0 to Defensa y Justicia) he gave a goal assist to Hernán López Muñoz, the great figure of the team, even.
“Then I think if this is really not for me. Don’t know. Today I only know that I need time and think things through. I was so happy, I felt so comfortable with the love and affection of people every day. (…) I have a closed personality and it is difficult for me to tell how I feel. But this time I have great pain in my chest that doesn’t let me breathe,” reads the footballer’s message. And he adds: “Unfortunately we are exposed to this at all times and at all times. Not only to injuries of this magnitude, but also to the media exposure and what people will say constantly.”
At the end of the long post, the young man opens a door to hope: “Today I have to surround myself with my most intimate circle and try again. Football is like that, it’s very cruel, and we don’t have time to rethink things (…). Finally this storm will pass and will not knock me down, surely more will come and I will wait for them here firmly planted.”
