#TBT: "DAMNED TONSILLITIS"

AC Milan were in full swing in 2005/06: they were going head to head with Juventus in the Scudetto title race and had beaten a strong Lyon side in the Champions League quarter-final. However, on Easter Saturday, the day after Kaladze’s winner in the Derby, rumours began to circulate around the camp: Pippo Inzaghi, who had trained well and was fully prepared for the semi-final first leg against Barcelona at San Siro, had a fever.

It wasn’t any old fever either, it was tonsillitis, which used to affect him from time to time. There was nothing they could do, Alberto Gilardino lined up against Ronaldinho and that Barça side, he played well but hit the post in the match’s crucial moment. Then in the second leg at the Camp Nou, AC Milan fought hard, but Shevchenko’s disallowed goal meant the Rossoneri weren’t able to cancel out Giuly’s goal from the first leg. Inzaghi did indeed play in that match, but he was still debilitated.

Four days later, AC Milan beat Livorno 2-0 on 30 April 2006 thanks to an Inzaghi brace, and AC Milan were left regretting the fact they couldn’t use him in their first leg against Barcelona. When he left the pitch that day after his double that defeated Livorno, Ancelotti embraced him and said: “Damned tonsillitis.”

The fact is that without that fever and swollen throat, Pippo would’ve led the line for the Rossoneri in that Champions League semi-final first leg, and perhaps the result would’ve been different. An Inzaghi like that, who had recovered from an ankle problem and was a ruthless and lethal player in the box, would’ve been more than useful in that game. In any case, four days after being eliminated by Barcelona, AC Milan qualified for the following season’s Champions League with that 2-0 win over the Tuscans.

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