Pato: Milan mismanaged me

Alexandre Pato believes that he has proven that his injury struggles at Milan were not through his own doing, but how the club handled him.

The striker endured a difficult spell in Serie A with the Rossoneri, struggling to live up to expectation through a series of muscle-related injuries.

Alexandre Pato believes that he has proven that his injury struggles at Milan were not through his own doing, but how the club handled him.

The striker endured a difficult spell in Serie A with the Rossoneri, struggling to live up to expectation through a series of muscle-related injuries.

“The billing I had until the period in which I played in Europe was not exaggerated and I think I came through.

“Unfortunately I had a break because it was a period in which I got injured and it was not good, it was almost two years without a sequence of games,” Pato has reflected to Estadao.

“It was also why I returned to Brazil. I wanted to return to playing regularly without hurting myself, whilst I believe that when I have had a sequence, I have corresponded [with expectation].

“When I started to get injured, I travelled everywhere and did what I had to do, but the period of transition to the field was not done well, the work I did here in Brazil could have been done there.

“Some injuries were more the result of the effort in trying to come back, but I did not have the same injury twice nor that were serious, even as the Italian media often said that I was injured.

“When I returned to Brazil within a week I was fine. Many people believed that the problem was me, but thankfully the tests have shown that the transition work was poorly done, it should have been done in a way that I could have continued playing.

“The return to Brazil? My first goal was to play, without injuring myself. The first year was as I had hoped and it was a year in which I did not get injured.”