Adriano goes on sabbatical

The latest episode in the turbulent life and times of Inter Milan and Brazil striker Adriano was played out on Thursday evening as he revealed plans to take a sabbatical from football. Adriano failed to return to Inter following international duty with Brazil last week and was later found to be staying with his mother in Rio de Janeiro. He called a press conference there to announce plans to give up football as he has "lost the joy of playing".

Adriano said: "I have stopped my career for a while because I have lost the joy of playing. "It could be one, two or three months. There is big pressure in Italy. I don't want to return to Italy. I want to live in peace here in Brazil." Adriano said he will use the time to consider his future, dropping a strong hint that he would not return to Milan. "I was not satisfied," he said. "Everybody has the right to be happy in his job and I was unhappy in Italy. I will re-think my career."

This is not the first time that Adriano's Inter career has been called into question because of the player's off-field situation. In Sept 2007, he was sent home to Brazil by Inter as he was unhappy, and he went on to join Sao Paulo on loan for six months. Adriano said that he does not expected to be paid by Inter while he is absent from the team. "I have no bad feelings for Inter," he said. "I just dislike living in Italy. I felt I was pressured. I felt big pressure when I was 18 years old [when he joined Inter from Flamengo]. A lot of people will not understand. It is a bad situation, not easy at all, but it is a choice."

Adriano added that if he resumes his career in Brazil, he wants to sign for Flamengo, saying: "If not, my grandmother will kill me." * With agencies