Italian media reports highlighted the tremendous effort made by legendary international Luka Modrić with his club Milan and his national team Croatia despite reaching the age of 40, having only received 9 minutes of rest so far during the last 3 matches he played.

According to the website “Football Italia,” only one player at Milan has more playing minutes than Modrić in the 2025-2026 Serie A season.

Modrić is only surpassed by Matteo Gabbia, the center-back, in terms of playing minutes with Milan in Serie A this season, as the defender has played every minute of the season so far.

Modrić has played more minutes in Serie A than the first-choice goalkeeper Mike Maignan, who was injured against Bologna in September and missed the following match against Udinese.

Modrić, who joined Milan on a free transfer after ending his 13-year career with Real Madrid earlier this summer, has started in all six of Milan’s Serie A matches so far this season.

He was rested for 16 minutes at the end of his first Serie A match, which his team lost 2-1 to Cremonese, and has only been substituted once since then, for nine minutes at the end of the 3-0 win over Udinese.

The former Ballon d’Or winner also played the full 90 minutes with his national team Croatia in the goalless draw against the Czech Republic in World Cup qualifiers on Thursday evening.

The 40-year-old midfielder has had some rest in the Coppa Italia, but between his commitments in Serie A and the national team, he has missed only 23 minutes out of seven matches this season.