The 26-year-old midfielder was used as a substitute in Sporting B’s defeat against Académico de Viseu (2-1), in the 17th round of the II League.
Sporting midfielder Daniel Bragança returned to the pitch this Sunday, for the “Lions” secondary team, in the II Portuguese Football League, almost a year after suffering a serious injury to his left knee.
The 26-year-old midfielder was used as a substitute in Sporting B’s defeat against Académico de Viseu (2-1), in the 17th round of the secondary division, coming on in the 62nd minute to replace Manuel Mendonça, at a time when the coach of the main team, Rui Borges, was already watching from the stands at the Estádio Aurélio Pereira, in Alcochete.
Bragança did not play on February 15 last year, when he suffered a complete rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in a match against Arouca, from the I Liga, which the ‘green and whites’ would end up drawing (2-2), at the José Alvalade Stadium.
The midfielder for the two-time national champions was declared fit by the club’s clinical department a month ago, at the beginning of December, before the visit to German side Bayern Munich, for the Champions League, but he had not yet played a single minute this season.
He thus took advantage of Sporting’s B team to gain a competitive rhythm and accelerate the return to the options of Rui Borges, in the main team, a coach who has mentioned, several times, in press conferences, that the midfielder is fit, but is still looking for the physical form that will allow him to return to the options.
This was the second serious injury for the player trained at the Green and Whites’ Academy, who missed the entire 2022/23 season after suffering a ruptured cruciate ligament in his right knee during pre-season.
Daniel Bragança, aged 26, made his debut for Sporting’s main team through the ‘hand’ of Ruben Amorim, in 2020/21, after loans to Farense and Estoril Praia, and has three national champion titles (2020/21, 2023/24 and 2024/25), a Portuguese Cup (2024/25) and two League Cups (2020/21 and 2021/22).
