AC Milan Forward Alexandre Pato Out for Season After Injury Relapse

AC Milan risk injury-addled Alexandre Pato in the 69th minute of the away leg of their Champions League tie with Barcelona on Tuesday. It turned out to be a disastrous decision for the club and the Brazilian player when he was removed 14 minutes later with yet another muscular knock.

Pato is now finished for the season after suffering his 14th injury since the beginning of 2010.

The player's ongoing muscular problems continue to mystify the Milan medical team. Club doctor Jean Pierre Meersseman broke the news of Pato's injury to La Gazzetta dello Sport. (From ESPN):

His season is over. We'll have to start again when he has healed. He's been all over, from Germany to America, in a bid to resolve his fragile muscles. He's been looked at and cured. I've even asked my spiritual therapist to pray for him.

I didn't sleep at all after the Barcelona game. I'll take responsibility for the relapse, even if I don't know what caused it. I didn't solve something in three weeks which hasn't been resolved in two years.

Pato was declared fit on 13 occasions, but evidently he wasn't healed. When I saw on the TV that he was injured I felt bad. I wasn't expecting it to go like that.

And so the medical staff are going back to work trying to salvage the career of the 22-year-old player. They sent Pato for an MRI upon his return to Milan. The test determined that he should have more tests. Milan released a statement on their official Web site today.

A.C. Milan wishes to communicate that Alexandre Pato underwent medical scans today at the Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute in Milan. The scans revealed a muscular lesion in his left thigh. Between 10/15 days from today, the player will undergo more medical tests.

Between injuries Pato has managed 18 appearances for the Rossoneri this season. In those matches, he has averaged just over 50 minutes per game. Perhaps most indicative of the player's troubles, the once-prolific forward has scored just four goals this term.

In Pato's last relatively full season at Milan, he scored 18 goals across all competitions during the 2008-09 campaign.