"It really is leaning."
In front of the famous Pisa Leaning Tower, Lexi linked arms with Chen Yu and marveled at the massive structure before them.
After arriving in Italy, the two hadn’t rushed to Milan, choosing instead to do some sightseeing first.
They had left their mark on famous cities like Venice and Florence.
It was just that time was tight, so it was a bit of a whirlwind tour.
"Gallant, help us take a picture."
Chen Yu turned and called over the attendant Moratti had sent to help them take pictures.
"Shoot it exactly like this. I saw someone do it in a travel magazine." Lexi excitedly ran off to find the right angle. She wanted to use forced perspective to take a photo where it looked like she was holding up the Pisa Leaning Tower with both hands.
To get the perfect angle, Gallant, who stood a full six-foot-three, had to awkwardly lie on the ground to take the picture.
"Let’s go. Off to Milan."
Seeing how much trouble he was going to, Chen Yu didn’t have the heart to drag it out. Once they were done with the Pisa Leaning Tower, he told Lexi it was time to go.
They were supposed to have another day, but Moratti had repeatedly asked Chen Yu to arrive in Milan a day early.
It seemed something had come up.
Gallant was immensely relieved. As a native Italian, he truly couldn’t understand what was so interesting about some old, broken-down tower.
They drove to Milan.
The next morning, Moratti and his assistant came to pick up Chen Yu.
Head coach Cooper was with them as well.
The car drove on, finally stopping in front of the Galeazzi Hospital in Milan City.
Moratti looked apologetic. "Chen, I know you came to Italy mainly for a vacation, but one of our players just got injured, so I was hoping you could take a look. Don’t worry, I’ll pay for the consultation."
Chen Yu was silent.
’I can’t seem to get a moment’s peace anywhere I go.’
Still, since the man was covering all his expenses for the entire trip, he figured he might as well take a look.
"What’s the injury?" Chen Yu asked as they got out of the car and walked toward the hospital.
Moratti said, "It’s our striker, Christian Vieri. He strained his left Achilles tendon at the end of last month. It’s his shooting foot, and I’m worried it could cause long-term problems, so I wanted you to take another look."
Back in the day, he’d been duped by Lippi into buying Vieri for a record-breaking transfer fee. Now that time had passed, Moratti couldn’t be bothered to sigh over it anymore. He’d already bought him, so he might as well use him. Besides, Vieri was still a world-class striker.
But who would have thought that Vieri, who had been perfectly healthy at Lazio, would start getting injured so frequently after coming to Inter?
It had gotten to the point where Moratti wondered if Vieri and Inter were simply a bad match.
"The Achilles tendon?"
Chen Yu furrowed his brow slightly.
As the thickest tendon in the human body, it was difficult to injure, but any injury to it would have a huge impact on athletic performance.
A ruptured Achilles tendon, in particular, was an injury comparable to a torn ACL.
Otherwise, the term "Achilles’ heel" wouldn’t exist.
When they entered the hospital, Vieri and his agent, Sergio Bertie, were already there.
As the three of them entered, the other two quickly rose to their feet.
Chen Yu didn’t immediately extend his hand.
The two men before him were both dressed in sharp suits, were about his height, and had similarly sturdy builds. At first glance, Chen Yu couldn’t be sure which one was Vieri.
It was only after Moratti greeted them that Chen Yu knew which one was Vieri.
’The more handsome one.’
He had medium-length, wavy dark brown hair held back with a headband. The well-fitting suit on his athletic frame made him look like a fashion model.
’The one beside him must be his agent, Bertie.’
Compared to Vieri, Bertie was far more enthusiastic. He shook Chen Yu’s hand with a beaming smile, saying excitedly that he had long heard of Chen Yu’s fame. If Chen Yu hadn’t come to Italy, he had been planning to take Vieri to the United States for treatment.
"Let me see his medical records first."
Chen Yu took the medical records and began to read them carefully.
Vieri’s injury wasn’t complicated: a torn Achilles tendon.
It was a minor tear, not too severe. Compared to ligaments, tendons tend to recover more easily.
The diagnosis from Galeazzi Hospital was sound: immobilization and eight to ten weeks of rest.
Chen Yu would have made the same diagnosis himself.
At most, Chen Yu would have added some rehabilitation therapies to help the tendon heal better.
But this was Italy, and it wasn’t convenient for Chen Yu to stay, so there wasn’t much more he could do.
If the tendon had been fully ruptured, Vieri could have gone to the United States for treatment with him.
"It’s not a major issue. Just follow the existing treatment plan," Chen Yu said, putting down the file.
Moratti breathed a sigh of relief. "That’s wonderful news."
Although Galeazzi Hospital had reached the same conclusion, Moratti was more inclined to trust Chen Yu’s diagnosis, even if it was identical.
’Otherwise, why would people trust experts?’
"Actually, I’m curious about something," Chen Yu said, his tone shifting. "Massimo, I heard you say earlier that he only started getting injured frequently after coming to Inter Milan, whereas he was quite healthy at Lazio."
Vieri is only 28, right in his prime. Age shouldn’t be the main cause of his frequent injuries.
"I’ve read media reports saying your Serie A matches are intense, but he played in Serie A before, so he shouldn’t have had trouble adjusting."
When Ronaldo was injured, Chen Yu had researched the media coverage. He recalled some reports claiming that Ronaldo began to suffer injuries after arriving in Serie A because the matches were more intense and the defending more aggressive.
But Vieri had spent most of his career in Serie A, so that shouldn’t be the case for him.
"By the way, what’s your off-field life like?"
Chen Yu looked at Vieri. A lack of discipline off the field was another major reason players were prone to injury.
Vieri paused for a moment, then chuckled. "It’s fine, I guess."
"Fine?"
Moratti snorted. ’Fine? As a playboy known throughout all of Italy, his private life is anything but just ’fine.’’
’But what can I do? I can’t control my players’ private lives.’
’And I really don’t get it. Why do all these women throw themselves at Vieri like moths to a flame?’
Unaware of the full story, Chen Yu took Vieri at his word and continued, "Then it must be the training."
After high-intensity matches, players aren’t getting adequate rest.
Although there’s a good amount of time between soccer matches, the games themselves are more intense and physically draining. That makes proper recovery even more critical.
At the same time, scientific training is incredibly important.
It’s not that traditional, experience-based methods are bad, but sometimes, you really have to prioritize scientific analysis.
"When I was with the Phoenix Suns, we used all sorts of scientific equipment, like high-definition cameras and motion sensors, to monitor the players’ physical condition during training," Chen Yu began, sharing his experience.
"We also regularly monitored the players’ health, using data to analyze potential injury risks. For instance, if a player’s running speed was high in one practice session but dropped in the next..."
"...that’s when you need to analyze the reason why. It could be a hidden pain that the team doctor missed. Then the player goes into a game with an underlying issue, which increases the risk of injury."
Relying on experience alone makes it difficult to spot these subtle changes in a player’s condition.
But data doesn’t lie. If you’re jumping lower or running slower, the numbers make it plain as day.
"We’ve been trialing this system for half a season and have already built a preliminary data analysis model to better assess player conditions. If you’re interested, I can share it with you."
Of course, in addition to data analysis, you absolutely need all sorts of high-tech equipment.
Cooper nodded repeatedly. His last visit to Chen Yu’s clinic had been a real eye-opener.
"Mr. Moratti, I think Chen is absolutely right," Cooper suggested. "It’s essential that we establish a system like this to monitor the players’ physical condition. The cost is low, but the returns would be immense."
’Setting up a system like this, even if it cost a few million Euro, what would that be in the grand scheme of things?’
’When a player gets a season-ending injury, now *that’s* a huge loss.’
’Besides, when the players are in better shape, the team’s results improve. An investment like this is nothing, really.’
Moratti nodded in agreement. His trip to the United States had left him deeply impressed with the operations of commercial professional leagues like the NBA and the National Football League.
He thought for a moment, then said, "After I returned from the United States, I had an idea to expand our medical team—for example, by establishing a medical lab dedicated to ensuring the players’ health."
Cooper’s eyes lit up. "Sir, that’s an excellent idea," he said flatteringly.
’Getting a professional medical team, setting up a lab... maybe call it the Inter Milan Lab or something. It would be a huge help to the team.’
Moratti looked at Chen Yu, his eyes filled with yearning. "Chen, could you please reconsider coming to Italy?"
’For a lab like this, investing in equipment is the easy part. The core has to be the doctor.’
’And no one is more suitable than Chen Yu.’
Chen Yu shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. How had the conversation circled all the way back to him?
"I don’t have any plans to leave the United States for my career right now, but we can certainly exchange experiences," Chen Yu said.
Moratti sighed, knowing he couldn’t press the issue further.
After returning from the hospital, Chen Yu didn’t stay idle. Milan City had plenty of attractions to see.
While walking through Milan Old Street, Chen Yu could already feel the tension of the upcoming city derby.
Billboards everywhere announced the impending clash.
The television, too.
When he turned on the TV, he couldn’t understand the language, but he could tell from the images that they were reporting on the match.
When Chen Yu and Lexi wandered through the old city and sat down to relax in a bar, they could hear people all around them passionately discussing the next day’s match in various languages.
The derby, the rivalry... there was just too much history, too much bad blood between AC Milan and Inter Milan.
"Why does it feel like these two teams are mortal enemies?" Lexi asked, a little surprised.
In the United States, they had rivalries too, but none this intense.
Chen Yu didn’t say anything, just perked up his ears to listen to the fans gossiping around them.
’Seems like the animosity is pretty serious.’
Especially in last season’s derby, when AC Milan had shown no mercy, thrashing Inter Milan 6-0.
The scoreline set a record for the largest margin of victory in the derby’s history—a truly epic disaster for Inter.
An enraged Moratti had fired head coach Tardelli on the spot.
’And there were whispers of match-fixing, too.’
The rumor was that since the match was just two days before the Italian general election, the landslide victory had helped the AC Milan chairman’s political campaign, thus raising suspicions of match-fixing.
Then there were connections drawn to AC Milan’s head coach, Fatih Terim.
This season, the Red-Black Legion had finally gotten their long-awaited Turkish coach, Terim, but the dream hadn’t matched the harsh reality. AC Milan’s management was already growing dissatisfied with him.
If they lost this crucial derby, there was a very high probability that Terim would be packing his bags.
So, in Chen Yu’s opinion, Lexi describing the two teams as mortal enemies was no exaggeration at all.

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