STOCKHOLM, 21 Mar: Retirement didn\u2019t enter the thoughts of Zlatan Ibrahimovic while he was sidelined for eight months with a swollen left knee following surgery.
\nBut his condition certainly had the Swedish soccer great worried.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t come into a situation where I said, \u2018Stop,\u2019\u201d Ibrahimovic said Tuesday. \u201cI was more (thinking) it was hopeless. Whatever I did, I didn\u2019t get positive feedback. I tried everything.\u201d
\nIndeed, the AC Milan striker\u2019s main priority quickly became simply getting back to normal health, rather than to a level required to maintain his trophy-laden soccer career.
\nThat Ibrahimovic is back and in a position, at the age of 41, to play for his country in a European Champion-ship qualifier is testament to his self-belief and resilience.
\nOn Saturday, he became the oldest scorer in Serie A history and now he\u2019s hoping to be picked for Sweden\u2019s match against Belgium on Friday for his first national team appearance in nearly a year.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not there (at Milan) or here for charity,\u201d Ibrahimovic said at a news conference at Sweden\u2019s training base. \u201cI\u2019m here to play my game, to provide, and bring results through my performances.
\n\u201cSo hopefully I can continue to do that, and at the same time feel healthy.\u201d
\nGiven Ibrahimovic\u2019s recent period of inactivity \u2014 the game against Udinese over the weekend marked his first start since January of last year, having had his knee operation in May \u2014 he is not prepared to discuss how long he has left in his playing career.
\nHe certainly isn\u2019t thinking about Euro 2024 in Germany.
\n\u201cI take it day by day,\u201d Ibrahimovic said. \u201cIf I feel good and I\u2019m selected by the coach, I will help him, the team and the country to do my best. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STOCKHOLM, 21 Mar: Retirement didn\u2019t enter the thoughts of Zlatan Ibrahimovic while he was sidelined for eight months with a swollen left knee following surgery. But his condition certainly had the Swedish soccer great worried. \u201cI didn\u2019t come into a situation where I said, \u2018Stop,\u2019\u201d Ibrahimovic said Tuesday. \u201cI was more (thinking) it was hopeless. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-213285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}