Sala fears another serious injury: Tommy stops in Gurgl, suspected cruciate ligament damage

A hammer blow, just days before the start of a season he was finally hoping to experience at 100%, after a comeback season that had nevertheless been fairly good.

Tommaso Sala is living through another nightmare, hoping that the indications provided by FISI this afternoon may instead point to a less disastrous outcome than the worst-case scenario: two years ago, the Lombard slalom specialist tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee in Val Senales; this time, there are fears that the same type of injury may have affected his right knee, which was injured during training in Gurgl.

Just yesterday, seven days before the Levi opener and two weeks before the race on the same “Kirchenkar” piste, Tommy stopped a few gates after the start of a slalom run, feeling pain in the joint and pulling over at the side of the course. Just as in 2024, he did not even fall: the initial examinations carried out in Soelden revealed a sprain to the knee, which will be assessed by the FISI Medical Commission in the coming days, with the suspicion that “it is a cruciate ligament injury”, as stated in the federation’s release.

In the meantime, technical director Max Carca has announced the squad for the Levi slalom scheduled for Sunday, November 15; seven athletes will race for Italy: Alex Vinatzer, Tommaso Saccardi, Matteo Canins, Edoardo Saracco, Tobias Kastlunger, Corrado Barbera and Matteo Bendotti. The skier from Bergamo will finally make his World Cup debut, two years after the serious cruciate ligament injury that the 2001-born talent suffered in Val Senales, just a few months after seeing his “first” appearance in the top circuit disappear in Bansko, when the first run was interrupted and the race cancelled due to weather conditions at the Bulgarian venue.