At His Old Club His Face Already Looked Kind of Red
Lazio beat the Palermo Pinkos 2-0 over the weekend to hang on to the 4th-place Champions League qualification spot in Serie A, a single point ahead of Udinese.
Both goals were scored Giuseppe Sculli. Sculli moved from Genoa to Lazio in the January widow, but was making only his second start for his new club off of a knee injury.
Shortly after the halftime restart, Sculli was subbed off because he was unable to continue. No, he hadn’t reaggravated the injury or any such thing. Instead he had developed a rash because he was allergic to the pitch.
This isn’t quite the same as Yoan Gouffran’s condition, the Frenchmen you might recall is allergic to grass.
Instead Sculli had an allegic reaction to the green paint used on the pitch at the Stadio Olimpico. As they are unable to fully resod the playing surface during the season, the grounds crew simply paints the brown parts green. That green paint caused Sculli to break out in a red rash bad enough that he had to be taken out of the match.
Lazio club doctor, Roberto Bianchini, explained that Sculli “had Quincke’s oedema” and “the problem has been resolved.” According to that link, though, the condition affects “the subcutaneous tissue, particularly of the lips, eyelids and genitalia.”
So, reading between the lines, Sculli’s balls were too itchy to play soccer. Bianchini confirmed that now, “The boy is fine.” Sculli’s boys however may suffer again if different paint isn’t used.
