Zambrotta unusual surgery for Italy’s 2006 World Cup winner

Italy’s World Cup winner Gianluca Zambrotta was well known for being bow-legged, but reveals they had become so painful that he had experimental surgery to correct them.

The 49-year-old was one of the key figures in Italy’s 2006 World Cup triumph, as well as amassing silverware playing for Juventus, Barcelona and Milan.

His unusual gait and running style were in part because he was bow-legged, but what had seemed to be an advantage in his playing career brought much bigger problems off the field.

Pain prompted Zambrotta operations

Zambrotta revealed he had two operations to straighten out his legs, hoping this will reduce the pain that he said was becoming unsustainable, making even going up and down stairs extremely difficult.

“People used to recognise me first by looking at my legs, then my face,” joked Zambrotta in La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere della Sera.

“However, I have to think about my health. I probably should’ve had this operation 10 years ago, but I delayed it. The situation really started to deteriorate after I stopped my playing career.”

He already had the operation on his left leg a year ago, and has now gone under the knife for the right leg too.

This is a genetic condition, and his medical approach inspired his father Alberto to follow suit with similar surgical intervention.

Curiously, father and son went in for the same operation on the same day in the same structure, the Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli in Bologna.