Rafael Leao has magic in his boots to fire AC Milan to Champions League glory

Rafael Leao is AC Milan's first budding global superstar since Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Andrea Pirlo were in their prime.

At his best, the Portuguese attacker could play in any team, anywhere – which is why one half of a city is holding its breath ahead of Milan's biggest knockout fixture since they won the Champions League in 2007.

As San Siro prepares to host its first city derby in European competition since 2005, Milan have been on tenterhooks ever since Leao hobbled off during the early stages of his team's 2-0 win over Lazio on Saturday,

Mindful of the psychological edge it could hand Inter, Milan have tried to play down the severity of the injury.

'I don't think it's particularly serious,' said coach Stefano Pioli. 'And anyway, we can cope without him.'

Leao himself attempted to reassure supporters via social media, writing 'We go again soon.'

But when Milan resumed training after the Lazio game, Leao was restricted only to gym work.

Inter supporters will disagree but it would be a huge shame if Leao cannot play on Wednesday, because watching him is a reminder of why we fall in love with football.

With tactical structure and patterns of play more important than ever at the top level of the game, footballers like Leao, 23, are a refreshing antidote.

Give him the ball, anywhere on the pitch, and his first thought is how to beat the man in front of him. Never mind playing one of many pre-planned 10-yard balls to create a tap-in for a forward, eight passes later. Leao thinks of a trick and a sprint to take one, two, three, four players out of the game.

A perfect example is the goal scored by Olivier Giroud in the second leg of the quarter-final against Napoli, which ensured Milan went through 2-1 on aggregate against the new Serie A champions. Giroud had the easy part, drilling home from 12 yards, after Leao had brought the magic.

Picking up the ball inside his own half, Leao breezed past opponents before squaring the ball for the Frenchman, who had just missed a penalty. From a similar distance, he was not going to make the same mistake twice.

No wonder Giroud paid tribute to Leao with the 'shoe-shine' celebration, kneeling in front of his team-mate and pretending to polish his boots.

The gesture was brought to worldwide attention in the 1997-98 season by former Inter winger Francesco Moriero, who celebrated in this way with the great Ronaldo after many of the Brazilian's 34 goals that campaign. Not a bad man for Leao to emulate.

Leao's path has not always been easy.

As an academy player at Sporting Lisbon, his potential was compared with that of Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo, who also developed there.

But he terminated his contract with Sporting in June 2018, a month after the club's training ground was stormed by about 50 supporters brandishing weapons.

Leao's next stop was Lille, where he spent a single season – scoring eight goals in 26 games – before joining Milan for about £20million.

It has not always been plain sailing but under the careful guidance of Pioli, Leao is showing why he was considered as special as Ronaldo and Figo during those early days with Sporting.

The elephant in the room is Leao's contract, which runs out at the end of next season.

Milan have been trying for nearly two years to agree a new one but until now without success, although there is thought to have been a breakthrough in talks in recent weeks.

Chelsea have followed Leao for some time and they are not the only Premier League eyes on him. Again, fans of English football would beg to differ but it would be ideal if Leao – who is preparing to release his second rap album under the alias Way45 – could stay at Milan a little longer.

Though they lack the financial clout of most top-flight English clubs, as well as Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, only Madrid have won more European Cups that Milan.

Seven-time European champions should always have a player like Leao in their ranks – especially if he can help them make it eight.