AC Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri played down Friday’s training session brawl between US national team defender Oguchi Onyewu and goal-scoring star Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
There are two different accounts of what took place in the afternoon scrimmage at the rossoneri's Milanello training facility. The Gazzetta dello Sport indicates that Ibrahimovic made a hard sliding tackle on Onyewu, while Corriere dello Sport has it the other way around. Either way, the two exchanged blows and reports have Onyewu grabbing Ibrahimovic by the neck.
The two were separated by teammates and coaching staff and after receiving an earful from the manager, the session resumed.
“Absolutely nothing happened,” Allegri said on Saturday. “This [incident] was exaggerated. There were kisses and hugs [Friday] and it’s all over. Absolutely nothing happened. … We haven’t seen the last kiss.”
Onyewu, who has played just one Champions League game for AC Milan against FC Zurich in 2009, was not called up to the travel squad that will meet Bari in a road match on Sunday.
“Yes it’s true,” AC Milan’s chief administrator, Adriano Galliani, told SkySport24. “There was a pretty lively clash between the two during training and the session was suspended for a bit. It happens often on soccer fields and the news only came out because it was seen by a fan in the stands since we were training on an external field.
“Nonetheless, the players cleared the air. I spoke at length with both of them and it’s case closed. It’s a good sign. I like to see players revved up for training. I prefer these kinds of training sessions than practices ala camomile.”
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