Italy legend Baggio offers daily encouragement with inspiring Instagram post

Italy legend Roberto Baggio has shared a photo of his massively scarred knee after several surgeries during his playing days, along with a word of inspiration touching on his Buddhist beliefs.

Il Divin Codino was 18 when he suffered his first career-threatening injury to his knee, just two days before his move to Fiorentina was finalised. In September 1986, just a few games into his Viola career, he suffered another painful blow to his knee, which required 220 stitches to repair.

Issues with his knee would go on to be a persistent issue throughout his playing career, but that did not stop him from going down as one of the greatest Italian players to ever grace a football pitch.

Baggio shares his motivation

In a motivational post on Instagram, showing off his knee scars, the 56-time Italy international offered a word of encouragement taken from Buddhist leader and author Daisaku Ikeda.

“The stronger the oppression from without, the stronger one’s determination to summon one’s inner resources to fight against it—this is the spirit of youth,” he wrote on Instagram.