Elena Pietrini will undergo shoulder surgery on Wednesday 29 May. The spiker needs an operation to resolve the physical problem that gripped her for the entire season in Russia (her back would also have been affected), even though she had been decisive in winning the championship with Dinamo Kazan, dominating the decisive game 5 of the title final.
Now the hammer must officially say goodbye to the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Livorno native had left the national team retreat on Tuesday, after having undergone a thorough series of medical tests and physical tests. The 24-year-old will have the whole summer at her disposal to recover from this critical situation and to be ready for the next competitive year, when she will most likely settle in Milan.
This is a serious loss for Italy, who will have to give up a very important player in the squad, lively in attack and very solid in reception. Coach Julio Velasco will have to redesign the department: at the moment the designated starters seem to be Caterina Bosetti and Myriam Sylla, with Alice Degradi and Stella Nervini behind them. There would be another option, but one that really needs to be evaluated: using Ekaterina Antropova as a hammer and not just as a reserve opposite of Paola Egonu.
Italy will return to the field in Macau (China) for the second stage of the Nations League: from 29 May to 2 June the Italians will face France, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and China. At the end of the preliminary phase of the international competition, the FIVB ranking will be closed and the last five passes for the Olympics will be assigned: our national team is in a comfortable position to qualify for the Games.
