Ruben Loftus-Cheek was a serious casualty as Milan’s 24-game unbeaten run came to an end against Parma with a 1-0 defeat at San Siro.
Coming off worst in an early collision with Gialloblu keeper Edoardo Corvi, the Englishman was left in a heap on the turf and had to be stretchered off for Ardon Jashari in the 11th minute. Now, as per La Gazzetta dello Sport, more information has been provided around the 30-year-old’s ‘maxillary alveolar fracture’.
After his collision with Corvi following a nicely-shaped Saelemaekers rabona cross, it was revealed that Loftus-Cheek lost several teeth and fractured the aforementioned maxillary alveolar bone.
According to Professor Guglielmo Ramieri, director of maxillofacial surgery at the AOU Citta della Salute e della Scienza in Turin, this injury is a particularly annoying one. In the first few weeks, the Milan man will have to eat “soft foods, blended foods, baby food and purees for at least 3 weeks, if not a month.”
Furthermore, it’s an ‘unlucky’ injury. He continued, “This injury occurs because the player in the air has clenched teeth, because when you jump it is natural to close the two arches and clench the teeth. He was hit on the mandible, which is more resistant, and therefore, of the two arches, the weakest point being the alveolar structure, broke. This involves the detachment of the piece of bone that supports the teeth.”
“In this case, it detaches from the rest of the skull, and is often associated – as happened in this case – with the breaking of the teeth, because on impact they beat against each other.”
Loftus-Cheek is expected to be sidelined for the rest of the season, with this serious injury potentially even blocking his path to Thomas Tuchel’s England team for the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.