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Serie A: Riccardo Montolivo pleased to be over his injury nightmare at AC Milan

Image: Riccardo Montolivo: Has been injured for six months

Defender Riccardo Montolivo was pleased to return to AC Milan's starting line-up on Sunday, even though the Rossoneri slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Genoa.

Milan skipper Montolivo spent six months on the sidelines after fracturing a shin bone in Italy's pre-World Cup friendly against Ireland in May, but was named in Filippo Inzaghi's starting XI on Sunday following his late substitute appearance against Udinese last weekend.

Luca Antonelli's first-half goal condemned Milan to their third Serie A defeat of the season, but the scoreline did little to dampen Montolivo's delight at being amongst the action.

"I am happy to be back on the pitch after six months, for me it's like a victory, I suffered being out on the sidelines," he told the club's official website.

"Of course, I would have preferred to speak about a victory. I did everything to come back quickly, and now the most important thing is to get back into an ideal shape."

Inzaghi believes his players will learn valuable lessons from the defeat at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, a result which saw Milan fall to seventh in the standings - five points off third place.

"Today's match is part of our growth, the goal we conceded was a bit of a knock-out blow, the team struggled to react," the 41-year-old manager said.

"In the second half, we weren't as compact, but as always I saw commitment and matches are always conditioned by incidents.

"They put us in difficulty from corner kicks. We had a chance with Bonaventura, which showed the desire to find an equaliser.

"(Jeremy) Menez has scored seven goals, and (Keisuke) Honda has also scored in lots of matches, but today I thought that (Giampaolo) Pazzini and (M'Baye) Niang could give us a hand in the final 20 minutes but it didn't end well."

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