Alisson, Neres, Anguissa: three comebacks, three fresh injuries in a month

Alisson Santos came on against Venezia on Saturday 17 October, added some spark to Napoli's play, had a shot saved by Stankovic — and then pulled up with a muscle problem.

The context does not help. Napoli arrived at this game on the back of another defeat, 1-0 at the Penzo on Saturday 17 October, with the club already under heavy criticism after the 3-1 defeat at Villarreal. In that climate, a medical department sending players back out only for them to break down on the first heavy involvement becomes another problem on the pile, not a routine side-effect of a difficult season.

The first case was André-Frank Anguissa. He stopped on the eve of the Champions League opener against Arsenal, with tests showing a muscle problem in his right adductor. He returned for the 1-1 draw with Fiorentina on 22 September, playing the final minute, miscontrolling a pass from a metre away and pulling up again. The diagnosis: a low-grade myofascial injury. He had been declared fit and available, and broke down again after sixty seconds.

The same script repeats

The second name is David Neres, long a player prone to injury. He returned to the starting XI against Frosinone on 10 October (3-0), playing sixty subdued minutes, having been out after his ankle problem worsened during the half hour he played against Parma. Three days later, at Villarreal, he played half an hour and stopped again: a low-grade injury to the semimembranosus muscle in his thigh, at least three weeks out for a Napoli side that collapsed 3-1 on the same night in Villarreal.

From Anguissa's one minute to Neres's half hour to Alisson Santos's forty minutes, the pattern is identical: a player returns, is presented as recovered, and breaks down again within the first decent spell of action. Aside from Alisson's case, these are players already worn down by years of intense effort, but that alone does not explain why the same medical assessment has failed three times in a row within minutes. The question that remains is simple and uncomfortable: were these players really fit when they were sent back out, or has the rush to find bodies for an already threadbare squad brought players back before they were ready? On Tuesday, against Bodø/Glimt, Allegri will again have to decide who he can call on — and this time the answer is also owed by whoever declares them ready.