Antonio Pintus is the man charged with changing Real Madrid’s fortunes when it comes to injuries following a torrid season as far as the treatment room is concerned.
Los Blancos couldn’t buy a break from injury issues last season with the likes of Sergio Ramos and Dani Carvajal adding to an expensive medical bill across the 2020/21 campaign.
Real Madrid racked up more than 50 injury setbacks across their last campaign, and at one point in April, they even had one more injury than they had La Liga goals for the season.
Of course, there are no ‘what ifs’ in football, but given Real Madrid finished second, taking the title race to the final day of the season, who knows just how costly those injuries were.
And that’s why the La Liga giants took the opportunity to recruit one of the best in the business for a second time.
Following Carlo Ancelotti‘s appointment, Italian Antonio Pintus was appointed as first team head of physical preparation and physical preparation, and the mission is simple, to avoid what happened last season.
When it comes to the world of football fitness, there aren’t many better in the business.
Pintus was well-known from his days at Juventus, spending seven years with the Serie A club between 1991 and 1998, a spell in which The Old Lady won three league titles and a Champions League among other honours.
Spells at Chelsea, Udinese, Monaco, another at Juventus, West Ham, Marseille, Palermo and Sunderland followed before he first rocked up at Real Madrid under Zinedine Zidane.
During his first three years at the Santiago Bernabeu, between 2016 and 2019, Pintus played a key role in two Champions League wins and a La Liga title.
The 58-year-old then moved on to join Inter Milan in 2019, where he won the Serie A title last season under Antonio Conte.
Conte then left this summer amid a disagreement with the board, and Pintus left with him before being snapped up by Ancelotti ahead of his first season back at the Benabeu.
Pintus, who has succeeded Gregory Dupont, now has the task of avoiding what happened during the congested season of last to enable to Real Madrid to go one better in La Liga, and indeed in Europe, this season.
Good job mr doctor welcome back