Immediately after the injury that cut Zlatan Ibrahimovic's season short, several reports suggested that it could be the last we'd see of the centre-forward on a football pitch.
Ibrahimovic limped off after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament late on in Manchester United's 2-1 win over Anderlecht last month and given the fact that the player is set to turn 36 in October, some believed that he could well call it a day.
The Swedish powerhouse gave short shrift to those suggestions though by posting the below message to Instagram, which you've almost certainly seen dozens of times.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTPmFBWgkDG/?taken-by=iamzlatanibrahimovic&hl=en
A
positive update soon arrived from Ibrahimovic's agent, Mino Raiola, in relation to the player's successful surgery and the retirement rumours were put to rest, with United fans hopeful that their top scorer this season would extend his deal and stay for the next campaign.
Ibrahimovic's surgeon, Dr Freddie Fu, has done work on some of the biggest names in the NFL and NHL, and he insists that Ibrahimovic is among the most athletic specimens he's had the privilege of operating on.
"I can’t discuss too many details, I don’t want to get in trouble with Manchester United," he told the
South China Morning Post, via
Manchester Evening News.
"But I can tell you he’s in superb shape in all things. Healthy morphology, the quality of the bone and muscle, everything is as good as you can possibly see.
"He’s one of the top athletes I’ve ever touched, he is in superb shape."
Supporters tended to assume that Ibrahimovic would only have another year left in him because of the miles on his clock already, having signed his first professional contract in 1999.
But Dr Fu, who hopes to do some research on Ibrahimovic when he does hang up his boots, has an exciting take on the player's future as he has insisted that the former PSG, Barcelona and Inter Milan man can continue playing for several years to come.
“Sure, in the future absolutely, when he’s retired,” he said of his intentions to do further examination into Ibrahimovic's physiology.
“But he can still play for many years, he’s so healthy, so strong, biologically, bone morphology, everything, is absolutely very healthy."
