Inter Milan striker Marko Arnautovic considers midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu to be an “exemplary” teammate.
The Austrian spoke to Amazon Prime ahead of this evening’s Champions League match away to Red Bull Salzburg, via FCInterNews.
Arnautovic is finally getting back from a thigh injury that kept him off the pitch for several weeks.
Being away for more than a month cannot have been easy for the Austrian.
Arnautovic only re-joined Inter during the summer transfer window. Therefore, he still has a long way to go to prove that the club made the right choice in signing him.
And there had been some early signs of the veteran striker finding his feet in his second spell at Inter.
Therefore, the timing of Arnautovic’s injury (which came in a Serie A clash with Empoli in September) was a bitter blow, disrupting any early momentum.
This kind of time on the sidelines could have the risk of distancing a player from his teammates.
But the veteran former West Ham United and Stoke City striker credits one member of Inter’s squad in particular for always supporting him throughout his recovery process.
Marko Arnautovic Full Of Praise For Hakan Calhanoglu
Of his injury layoff, Arnautovic admitted that “It wasn’t easy for me to be out for so many weeks.”
“But everyone helped me,” he went on.
“It’s never a positive thing for a player,” Arnautovic said of being on the sidelines. “But everyone stuck by me closely.”
“For example, Hakan Calhanoglu was always asking me how I was doing,” he said.
“He helped me.”
“I think that’s exactly the kind of thing an exemplary teammate should do,” the striker said of former AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Calhanoglu.
He said that “I’m very happy to be in this team because it’s helped me a lot over the last six weeks.”
