Milan's long wait for Saelemaekers exposes a thin right flank
AC Milan have confirmed Alexis Saelemaekers will be out for more than three months after ankle surgery, a blow that lands at an awkward point in Ruben Amorim's first season.
AC Milan confirmed on Tuesday that Alexis Saelemaekers underwent ankle surgery in Amsterdam, with the club describing the operation as successful, Football Italia reported.
The statement said the Belgian winger had an "arthroscopic debridement and stabilisation procedure" on his right ankle, carried out by Dr Gino Kerkhoffs with Milan's own medical staff, Dr Andrea Bulgheroni and Diego Mantovani, present.
Saelemaekers picked up the injury in a Milan training session during the international break, according to Football Italia. He is not expected to play again before 2027, meaning a layoff of more than three months.
A long-term issue for Amorim's right flank
The timing is awkward for Ruben Amorim, who took over from Massimiliano Allegri in the summer and has been shaping his own identity at San Siro. Saelemaekers has made just five appearances across all competitions this season, with one assist, so the raw output lost is modest.
What matters more is profile. Saelemaekers is a player who can operate as a winger or a wing-back, giving a coach flexibility between systems built around a back four and ones built around a back three. Losing that adaptability for months, rather than losing goals or assists, is the real cost.
He has been a fixture of Milan's wide areas since arriving from Anderlecht in 2020, including loan spells at Bologna in 2023-24 and Roma in 2024-25 that broadened his experience in different tactical settings before his return to full-time Rossoneri duty.
Across his time at Milan, Bologna and Roma, Saelemaekers has scored 20 goals and added 25 assists in 203 Serie A appearances, a body of work that explains why he remains tied to Milan until June 2031 despite the two loan departures along the way.
Depth concerns compound an inconsistent run
Milan's results this season offer a mixed picture that makes the absence sting more. They remain unbeaten in six Serie A matches, a solid defensive and competitive foundation for Amorim's project. But across all competitions they have won only once in their last five games, a sign that the attacking cohesion has not yet matched the defensive stability.
Losing a player who can cover multiple wide roles removes one of the easier ways to freshen that attack through rotation. Amorim now has fewer ways to alter the shape or the personnel in wide areas without disrupting the system entirely, at a point in the season when fixture congestion is already testing squad depth.
That congestion is immediate. Milan travel to RB Salzburg on Thursday for their second Europa League group match, having lost their opening fixture at home to Benfica in September. A poor start in the competition leaves little room for further slippage, and it arrives in the same week as confirmation that one of the squad's most versatile attacking options is unavailable for months.
What the surgery timeline means next
Milan's statement frames the surgery itself as a success, which addresses the immediate medical concern but does not shorten the recovery clock. A return before 2027 is not expected, which effectively removes Saelemaekers from Milan's plans for the Europa League group phase and a large chunk of the Serie A programme either side of the turn of the year.
For Amorim, the practical question is who absorbs that wide-role versatility in the meantime. The answer will become clearer over the coming weeks as he manages both the Salzburg trip and the broader Serie A campaign without a player who has made 185 appearances for the club and scored 13 goals with 20 assists in that time.
Milan's immediate test comes on Thursday in Austria, where a result against Salzburg would ease some of the pressure building from the Benfica defeat and the underwhelming recent run, even as the club manages life without one of its more adaptable attacking pieces.