One heard a crack, another a clac and another began to scream like “if I was a pig they were killing”. After those events, the well. Operations, physios and lots of tears. Calvaries that did not always end well. Last season, 13 footballers suffered a cruciate tear in LaLiga; David Silva, less than a month ago. An evil that is in all sports. So are the hell knees.
His was the most famous injury and not because of the damage but because of the cause. “As was Figo and the Bernabéua chicken was set up, but I just wanted to go back”. César Jiménez (Ávila, 1977), a Real Madrid youth center back and former Zaragoza player, recalls that fateful January 16, 2005, when the Portuguese stomped on his knee. “I don’t have it stuck in my head I don’t feel grudgesWhat annoyed me is that I loved being in a locker room, playing…”.
Jiménez leaves the phrase in the air before remembering all the ordeal of “two plus years of injuries”. How he fought to recover from a cruciate and meniscus tear that left him “knee with play”, that is, unstable. “The knee cries in trauma. All trauma when there is support prejudges severity”, explains doctor Pedro Guillenthe leading specialist in knee injuries and a pioneer in arthroscopic operations on this joint.
Eight months after that, after many ups and downs, while training with the youth team of the Maño team, César heard “clack”. “Several players heard it from afar”, Jiménez tells about his second break, this time, he only after a turn. “The crusader is usually from a fortuitous self-injury,” says Guillén.
“More than the operation, the worst thing is not to play again. The months that you spend in solitude”, reveals the ex-soccer player. Hard moments that David Llopis, a sports psychologist defines it as having “great emotional impact”. “The objective is to help manage and understand the moment and fill the void that sports practice will leave“, explains Llopis.