Soccer:Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni is expected to remain in hospital until early next week as he recovers from a stomach operation. The Italian missed tonight's 1-0 defeat against Argentina after undergoing minor surgery to relieve abdominal pain.
It had been thought Trapattoni was suffering from a severe bout of food poisoning that resulted in his hospitalisation in the early hours of Tuesday morning but further tests revealed the problem was linked to scar tissue from a previous operation.
After consulting with the 71-year-old’s surgeon, a decision was taken to perform minor surgery in order to ease the pain.
“Giovanni Trapattoni has had a successful and straightforward minor surgical procedure performed in the Mater Hospital,” the FAI said yesterday afternoon. “He is now in recovery and will be returned to the ward in the next few hours. It is anticipated he will remain in hospital to recover over the weekend.”
Trapattoni, who is likely to be back at the helm when Ireland open their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with a trip to Armenia on September 3rd, was forced to watch the match from his hospital bed as Marco Tardelli took over at the Aviva Stadium.