Italy’s starting setter Simone Giannelli suffered a right leg injury to Japan in their latest match of the 2018 Men’s Volleyball Nations League. The injury, which is noted as a slight stretching of the myotendinous junction of the semimembranosus muscle – sometimes known as pulling a hamstring, will keep Giannelli out of action in week four with the team in Korea.
Additionally, Giannelli has already begun a rehabilitation program. He will be re-evaluated sometime next week to see when he can return to the volleyball court.
The injury is a huge setback for the Italian Men’s National Team, who is currently on the borderline of making it into the Final Round. With two groups and six pool play matches to go, Italy is sitting at 5-4 and in seventh place on the overall table – one match behind Russia and Serbia in fifth and sixth.
Replacing Giannelli will be tough after he averaged 375 still sets and 248 running sets in the team’s first nine matches. Doing so in the loss to Japan was Luca Spirito, who is second on the team with 44 still sets and 19 running sets, but the team fell in both games and lost a 2-1 lead in falling to Japan in five.
The good news though is that in week four, Italy will be a part of Pool 13 in South Korea along with Australia, China and the hosting nation. The combined record of all three teams is 4-23 as they are all the bottom three teams in the event. They will need to take advantage of it through the injury though, as their final pool in week five features three top five opponents in France, USA and Russia, although they get to host that pool.
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