{"id":495601,"date":"2026-05-05T15:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=495601"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:49:17","slug":"achille-polonara-retires-it-no-longer-made-sense-to-take-the-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/achille-polonara-retires-it-no-longer-made-sense-to-take-the-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Achille Polonara retires: \u201cIt no longer made sense to take the risk\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Achille Polonara<\/strong> has explained to la Gazzetta dello Sport the reasons behind his decision to retire from playing after trying to return following his long battle with illness. In the statements reported in the provided text, the former Italy forward says he realized he would never be the same player again and already opened the door to a future in coaching.<\/p>\n

Polonara said he had started working on his physical recovery as early as January and had only recently begun handling the ball again. But during that process, he understood that the comeback would not allow him to return to his previous level, especially after going through two serious medical conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had already started working physically in January<\/strong>,\u201d Polonara said. He then added: \u201cWhile training, I understood that I would never return to being the player I was before<\/strong>\u201d. His clearest line came when he explained the final decision: \u201cI was struggling to dribble properly with my right hand, and I\u2019m no longer 20 years old: I have gone through two major illnesses, and it no longer made sense to take the risk<\/strong>\u201d. He also said: \u201cI wanted to be remembered for who I was on the court, not for who I would have become<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former Italian international, however, has no intention of leaving the game behind completely. \u201cI would like to stay in basketball, and I\u2019m thinking about a coaching career<\/strong>,\u201d he explained. He also wanted to highlight the support he received in the hardest moments: \u201cEven in the most difficult moments they came to visit me, and their closeness meant a lot<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the statements reported in the provided text, the former Italy forward says he realized he would never be the same player again and already opened the door to a future in coaching<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":495600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[379],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-495601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-italbasket"],"yoast_head":"\nAchille Polonara retires: \u201cIt no longer made sense to take the risk\u201d - Sportando<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/achille-polonara-retires-it-no-longer-made-sense-to-take-the-risk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Achille Polonara retires: \u201cIt no longer made sense to take the risk\u201d - 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