Natalie Weber in remission and Mauro Zarate back with Fiorentina

The casual fan may have been wondering whatever happened to Mauro Zarate this season. After an alternately brilliant and frustrating spring with Fiorentina and a blistering preseason, he’s simply vanished from the match day squad. Happily, though, he’s returned this week and is training with the team again, and has the inside track to start against Qarabag. This is good news for a Viola club that’s looked completely out of ideas in the final third.

The reason for his absence has been his wife, Natalie Weber, who miscarried earlier this year and then discovered that she had breast cancer. She returned to Argentina for her fight with it, and Mauro requested and obtained permission from the club to go back and take care of her. That’s where he’s been these past weeks.

With her biopsy results improving, Mrs. Weber told interviewers that she’s still at risk, but that the major danger has passed. Zarate has returned to work, which has been understandably difficult for both of them, but she and their daughter are set to return to Florence shortly. Mauro, for his part, recently posted a photo to his Instagram account with the caption “I miss the women in my life.”

Here are our heartfelt best wishes to Mrs. Weber for a speedy and complete recovery and a full resumption of her life with her family. We’re ready for them to get back to being the most exemplary celebrity couple in Argentina.