Milan concerned by Cassano illness

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri is hoping forward Antonio Cassano can return to action after the winter break. Cassano was admitted to hospital on Saturday night after falling ill on the plane back from the Serie A clash at Roma, a match I Rossoneri won 3-2. He has remained under observation at the Policlinico clinic ever since, but Allegri today painted an optimistic picture for the 29-year-old former Real Madrid man. He said: "Antonio's doing really well, even on Saturday I got to talk to him for 20 minutes. At the moment the important thing is that he recovers and steers clear of danger. We hope to have him back as soon as possible, maybe after the winter break. "From what I heard yesterday he seemed calm and relaxed. The whole squad is in shock and really sorry about what has happened to him." Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani said: "I spoke to Antonio five minutes ago on the phone, but we've already exchanged plenty of text messages. I'm sure he'll be fine, he's already feeling much better. All the squad are with him. We hope everything goes well, he's in good spirits and seems calm." Cassano's health scare is the second in a week for Milan, with veteran midfielder Gennaro Gattuso battling a potentially career-threatening eye injury. Galliani added: "It was totally unexpected, similarly to what happened to Gattuso. Cassano is a strong character, strong like Rino [Gattuso]: everything will be fine. "Problems like this are part of life, I don't know why that is. Unfortunately life is full of things like this, and players are humans just like everyone else, and can suffer from exactly the same problems." The rest of the Milan squad flew out to Borisov today for tomorrow night's UEFA Champions League clash with BATE.