Former Serie C goalkeeper Ivan Luca Vavassori has returned home after spending several weeks fighting with the Ukrainian army against the Russians in Mariupol.
There were fears Vavassori had died during fights at the Mariupol steel plant, but his father revealed that he had been admitted to hospital with multiple wounds. The Milan prosecutor has opened an investigation over his mission in Ukraine.
Vavassori has now been discharged from the hospital and is coming back home.
“It’s time for me to come back. I’ve fought for a sufficient time, but now it’s time to return to my life,” he wrote on Facebook, posting a picture from an aeroplane.
“I’ve left many things behind; now I must fight to make things return to normality. I’ve left this play with my heart full of joy, knowing that I did all I could.”
Vavassori is a former Pro Patria goalkeeper and the son of the ex-patron of the storied Italian club.
He played in the first senior game of Gigio Donnarumma at Milan, a friendly encounter between the Rossoneri and Alcione in 2015. It was also the first match of Sinisa Mihajlovic in charge of the Diavoli.
Two years earlier, Vavassori was playing for Pro Patria when Milan star Kevin-Prince Boateng stormed off the pitch following racist abuses from the opposing fans.