The hack to Berlusconi’s left knee during the Blair family’s visit to his Sardinian villa earlier this month led the conservative Italian prime minister to joke to fellow patients about his “problems with the left”.
Berlusconi is more involved with football than Blair, who has occasionally been filmed messing around with a ball. The Italian is owner and president of AC Milan.
Tony and Cherie Blair, with their children Kathryn, Nicky and Leo, were paying a two-day visit to Berlusconi’s Villa Certosa, away from their main holiday at the Tuscan palazzo of Prince Girolamo Strozzi.
The prime minister could not resist the challenge when Il Cavaliere, as Berlusconi is sometimes known, suggested a game, with the villa’s staff making up the numbers.
In a move that will reinforce the stereotype of clumsy English footballers trying to shackle more cultured continentals, the Italian prime minister came off second-best when challenged by Blair. An inadvertent kick to Berlusconi’s left knee sent the Italian sprawling in agony. He was taken to hospital for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan on the knee.
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The stabs of pain were so persistent that Berlusconi first summoned Settimo Nizzi, an orthopaedic surgeon who is also the mayor of the nearby port of Olbia — and is, reassuringly, a member of the premier’s Forza Italia party.
Nizzi recommended a detailed examination and on Thursday morning the half-dozen patients in the radiology department of Olbia hospital were surprised to see Berlusconi arrive with bodyguards.
Ever garrulous, he took a seat in the waiting room and started chatting. “My leg is playing up. Tony Blair gave me a knock on the knee while we were playing football. In the left leg,” Berlusconi confided with a smile.
The prime minister paused, and then added with a bigger grin: “You know, I’ve always had problems with the left.”
Then, showing his talent for a notorious Italian pastime, Berlusconi jumped the queue — this time with the consent of the other patients.
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The physician diagnosed a slight meniscus (cartilage) injury. The local newspaper, La Nuova Sardegna, noted with satisfaction that Berlusconi was made to pay the regulation €50 fee for his consultation and scan — although the payment was handed over by a member of his entourage.
On Friday, Berlusconi was seen to be limping a little as he boarded the official Airbus that took him back to Rome from Libya, where he had discussed illegal immigration with Colonel Gadaffi. “Berlusconi has more luck as a soccer team chairman than as a player,” commented La Repubblica, the daily newspaper.
A Downing Street spokesman said last night: “The prime minister’s holiday activities are a private matter.”
The Blairs came back to Britain last week.