In the long and—whatever the opposite of illustrious is—history of injuries at Roma, a new signing hurting himself during his first training session might take the cake. Admittedly, Leon Bailey suffering a muscle strain hours after posing for his first official Roma photo isn’t as severe as Giorginio Wijnaldum having his tibia broken by a teammate after only one match, or Rick Karsdorp tearing his ACL in his first official appearance with the club, but it might be the very definition of Roma Happened.
While we sweat out Paulo Dybala’s latest muscle strain, there may finally be some good news on the injury front, at least as far as Bailey is concerned. Signed on loan from Aston Villa in late August, Bailey suffered a muscle strain during his first training session on August 20th, which put Gian Piero Gasperini’s attack behind the eight ball before the season began. Couple that with Dybala’s slow integration into the squad after surgery last spring and the club’s failure to find a suitable (or willing) left-winger late in the summer, and Roma has been fighting with one arm tied behind their back.
However, according to a report from Il Tempo, Bailey is poised to return to action later this month, with the Jamaican winger eyeing Roma’s Europa League opener against Nice on September 24th or the following league fixture against Hellas Verona on the 26th.
With increasingly frustrating perfoamcens on teh pitch, perhaps Bailey cna be the shot in the arm Roma needs as they move into the meaty part of the schedule later this month.
