Lazio’s team doctor updates on Stefan De Vrij, with knee surgery still an option for the defender.
The Dutch international has been struggling with a knee injury this season, and is currently being evaluated to see whether an operation can be avoided.
“Yesterday he went to Belgium,” Stefano Salvatori explained to Lazio Style Radio.
“It wasn’t for a consolation with [Doctor Marc] Martens, but with the head of sports medicine in Antwerp, and today he’s in Barcelona.
Lazio’s team doctor updates on Stefan De Vrij, with knee surgery still an option for the defender.
The Dutch international has been struggling with a knee injury this season, and is currently being evaluated to see whether an operation can be avoided.
“Yesterday he went to Belgium,” Stefano Salvatori explained to Lazio Style Radio.
“It wasn’t for a consolation with [Doctor Marc] Martens, but with the head of sports medicine in Antwerp, and today he’s in Barcelona.
“He hasn’t changed his mind, at the moment there is no date set for surgery. Today in Barcelona he’ll continue conservative therapy which involves three injection, but we’re taking different advice so we’re prepared.
“We’re the ones who sent him to Belgium, we’re trying to understand who can give us the most guarantees for his full recovery.
“We got good feedback in Belgium, now we’ll evaluate what to do with other colleagues in Germany, in Europe but also overseas.
“If conservative therapy doesn’t work, we’ll sit round the table and discuss the best surgical solutions.
“Different options have different recovery times, we’re interested in the option which will give us the best and most reliable results.
“We’ll decide the way forward in conjunction with the athlete, while Stefan will return to Formello tonight and we’ll look at the results.
“There may be positive responses immediately in terms of pain, but you have to remember that he’ll have to undergo some athletic tests.
“Everything must always be safe, because we don’t want to make the situation worse or force the issue unnecessarily.
“The result of these treatments will be seen on the pitch.
“If he has to have surgery, we’re not talking about weeks out, but months. In the past we’ve proposed surgery to De Vrij, but athlete wanted to keep playing.
“He played on, and made himself available for his country. He’s maybe mentally now more ready to recover, as certain objectives with the Netherlands have failed [the Dutch were knocked out of Euro 2016 qualifying].
“There’s no frenzy, but obviously without detracting from from the Dutch national team we’re interested in what he does for Lazio.”