Zlatan ibrahimovic played just 45 minutes in Milan’s 3-0 Europa League victory against Sparta Prague.
He was replaced immediately after the first half, whose place was taken by Rafael Leao.
Ibra missed a penalty in the first half in the 36th minute and would probably have wanted to play in the second half to find the goal, but Stefano Pioli says the best for them was the break, seeing the many challenges on the calendar and the age of the Swede.
“We had planned the replacement,” he told Sky Sport Italia. “Zlatan is the champion and maybe he wanted to continue, but we have another difficult match on Sunday, that was necessary.”
