Mattia Caldara, we hardly knew thee: Milan defender reportedly out for season

Mattia who?

Mattia Caldara is reportedly out for the rest of the season after suffering an injury in training, meaning that his first season at AC Milan will come to a close after him barely appearing for the club.

The former Atalanta defender made his switch to Milan this past summer as part of the deal that saw Leonardo Bonucci return to Juventus and Gonzalo Higuain come to the San Siro on loan. And while Higuain’s loan was cancelled back in January and he’s subsequently moved on to Chelsea, Caldara remains as the lone part of the high-profile summer deal.

Caldara has only appeared twice for the senior team at Milan this season, once in the Europa League against Dudelange, and once in the Coppa Italia against Lazio. He also appeared once for the Milan Primavera team for 45 minutes to build fitness.

Caldara was supposed to form a core partnership with Alessio Romagnoli that could be duplicated for Italy as well as at the club level, but Caldara’s injuries have prevented him from even appearing in a single Serie A match for Milan this season. Perhaps he’ll be able to recover over the summer and with a full training camp, perhaps he will form the partnership with Romagnoli that everyone tipped him to create when he made his switch from Juventus to Milan.