Napoli fans had cause for concern early Sunday when Mirko Valdifiori went down and had to leave training at Dimaro with an apparent sprained ankle. While it didn't look like a major, long-term injury, losing a midfielder who'd been impressive in training and in the club's first two pre-season friendlies would hurt.
Fortunately, things aren't that bad -- after some checking in the training room and testing his ankle in the weight room, Valdifiori came back out to the afternoon training session to do cardio work on the side. By all accounts, he was moving fine and looked like he should be good to go very soon, so it's more likely that it was just a bad twist to his ankle rather than a full-on sprain.
Valdifiori and Jorginho have both been looking very good in that deep playmaker role that Maurizio Sarri employs in his midfield. It's still early days, but it's starting to look like Sarri wanting to bring in the man who orchestrated things for him at Empoli was a good call.
Hopefully now Valdifiori can avoid more scares like this and stay healthy, and keep proving that faith correct.
