Monza soccer player Mari faces two months out after supermarket stabbing

MILAN, Italy: Monza soccer player Pablo Mari faces around two months out of action after an operation on Friday on wounds sustained when he was stabbed along with five other people in a supermarket near Milan. One person was killed in Thursday’s attack, a 47-year-old Bolivian national who worked at the supermarket in a shopping mall in the town of Assago, Italy’s Carabinieri police said. Another employee was injured along with four customers, including Mari.

Milan’s Niguarda hospital said on Friday its trauma team had carried out surgery to reconstruct two injured muscles in Mari’s back. The surgery went well and the defender is expected to remain in the hospital for two or three days, it said, adding he will be able to start a rehabilitation process immediately after. “This type of muscle injury usually requires two months of rest before one can resume physical activities,” it said.

A 46-year-old suspect was detained after the attack in a Carrefour supermarket but the motive was not clear, the Carabinieri said. They said late on Thursday the suspect had mental health disorders and was under guard in a psychiatric ward. According to Il Corriere della Sera newspaper, one of the first people to intervene to block the attacker was former Napoli, Inter Milan and Bologna soccer player Massimo Tarantino, who was also in the supermarket.

Monza have asked the Italian football league to postpone their Serie A match at home to Bologna scheduled for Monday as the team is “in a total state of shock,” Monza Chief Executive Adriano Galliani said. Newly promoted Monza, owned by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, are currently 15th in the 20-team league. Mari, a 29-year-old Spanish center back, is on loan at Monza from Premier