Del Piero's year

December 23, 1999
Juventus Official Site

The old year of 1999 has been one of contrasting emotions for Juventus and Italy forward Alessandro Del Piero. A serious knee injury sustained on November 8, 1998 conferred a dismal hue on the winter months as the player endured the highs and lows which are intrinsic to any recovery from serious injury.

Here Del Piero is swift to express gratitude for the support which arrived via letters, e-mail and faxes, sack-loads that lifted the spirits while he struggled against injury and its attendant demons. But worthy of special mention are the medical staff at the Turin club who gave the player the best possible care. "First and foremost, [I would thank] the medical staff at Juventus who looked after me in the best possible way, the club and the players. Then Steadman, the surgeon who operated on me in the clinic at Vail, where the atmosphere is so good that you end up feeling more like a guest than a patient," he recounted.

Whether as a catharsis or not, Del Piero is open about the silent agonies he endured: "What I did well was to realise straight off that I was living a new kind of experience in my life. I managed to accept the injury and all that went with it, because the surgery I underwent was anything but straightforward."

"I knew that it would be a long way back to fitness and that there would be setbacks along the way. The most important thing was not to compromise the knee and accept any pain as normal."

All that remains is for Del Piero to scale the heights in the New Year. "I know that I can still do better, but I am happy that I have worked my way back towards top form in the past two or three months. It pleased me to be given credit for my overall contribution to the team. But I would like to see my name back on the score-sheet; words cannot describe the joy of scoring a goal, which is much more than just creating openings for your team-mates. But this too is something special, as you will have seen in the Bologna game when I celebrated Inzaghi's goal as if it was my own," he explained.
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