don't know if it was posted before,,,
DUISBURG (AFP) - Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has admitted he is struggling to concentrate on the World Cup following the apparent suicide attempt of his Juventus teammate Gianluca Pessotto.
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"I'm finding it difficult at the moment, almost impossible, to talk about football or matches and all the emotions that you're supposed to feel at a World Cup," Buffon said ahead of Friday's quarter-final against Ukraine.
"My thoughts go out to Luca, my friend and companion of many battles, and to his wife and children."
Former Juventus and Italy defender Pessotto is in a serious but not life-threatening condition after jumping from his Turin office window on Tuesday.
Shortly after hearing the news, Juventus players Alessandro Del Piero and Gianluca Zambrotta left Italy's training camp and flew out of Germany to visit Pessotto in hospital. They returned the same night to rejoin the squad.
"Zambrotta and Del Piero went to see him in hospital and they came back with some words of comfort to the training camp where we were waiting anxiously," Buffon said.
"Luca will win the most difficult moment of his career and his life. He is a fighter, and a moment of weakness cannot alter the characterer or principals of a strong man like him."
On Wednesday, Italy defender Alessandro Nesta wished Pessotto, who made 22 appearances for the Azzurri, a speedy recovery.
"Nearly everyone in the team has played together with him and we're all very sad. We hope that he is able to resolve all of his problems," Nesta said.
Pessotto, who played for Juventus for 11 years before retiring last month and taking up the post as the club's team manager, leapt from his office at the team's headquarters and fell 15 metres to the ground, hitting two cars on the way down.
Police found him in a conscious state, clutching a string of rosary beads.
He was rushed to the Molinette hospital where he underwent a three-hour operation after suffering multiple fractures.
Pessotto, who is understood to have had treatment for depression, helped Juventus win the Champions League in 1996.
Juventus are at the centre of match-fixing allegations, but Pessotto is not implicated in the scandal that has engulfed Italian football.
On Thursday a sports tribunal hearing in Rome will decide whether four of Italy's top clubs colluded to rig matches.
Four Serie A clubs - Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina - face relegation or points deductions over allegations that corrupted referees manipulated matches, mostly in favour of Juventus, who have won four of the past five championships.
The sports tribunal is due to hand down its judgement sometime between July 7 and July 9, the day of the World Cup final.
Nesta insisted the trial would not distract Italy from their objective of winning the trophy.
"We'll worry about that when we get back," said the AC Milan centre-back. "Right now we are focussed on the World Cup."
it's really sad.I can't believe it.