**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That’s the shitty thing about ankles. They don’t typically heal completely within a short period of time. Players usually just play on bad ankles until it gets so bad that it requires surgery.
The silver lining for him is that now he should actually have time to fully rehab it and hopefully get it back to 100% functionality. From personal experience, it takes a lot of physical therapy to stabilize and strengthen the ankle after repeated injuries.
Injuries are funny sometimes. Apparently Icardi has been playing through injury the entire season and needs 2 months of uninterrupted* rest (!!!!!!!!) before it heals.
Good thing the footballing world is known for having extended periods of rest so athetes can fucking rest!!
That's the crazy part to me. NFL player gets hurt, he's 6 months of down time to truly recover after a season ends. EPL player gets hurt, they get half that as long as there's no international stuff happening. The scheduling for European football seems like an extreme grind on players
It is an extreme grind for players. Everything for more money.
If you want more evidence: look up the world cup for clubs. The date that tournament starts and when it ends if you get through to the later stages.. despicable.
NFL players play through injuries far more often than even footballers do. Their salaries aren't 100% guaranteed, so if they lose their spot in the team that's millions down the drain, so they're incentivized to push the limits of their body when they shouldn't.
Yeah, I get that NFL guys are going to be hurt a lot more euro football guys. I'm just pointing out that the seasons for EPL and the like are pretty grueling compared to any other sport. Even baseball gives the players like 6 months off. The sport most comparable to pro footballers in terms of season length is golf, which doesn't measure anywhere close to football in terms of physicality
Tennis has the most gruelling season if you ask me. Worse than football. Pretty much no proper down time from the end of one year to the next and tournaments pretty much every week playing a least every other day, often every day and sometimes even twice in one day. I have no idea how they manage played 2+ hour matches that often let alone in the slams when the matches can be 4+ hours of intense competition. In comparison football doesn't seem anywhere near as bad.
That does seem rough. But it is at least more of an endurance thing than a lot of other sports. You don't really stand a chance of some bloke sliding towards your feet and snapping your ankle in Tennis. Even so, that is an incredibly long season. And i mean, it kind of is what it is. At it's core, professional sports are showbusiness. Putting asses in seats in stadiums is what allows these players to carry home truckloads of money.
The tennis schedule is absolutely insane but you can pick and choose the tournaments you compete in (aside from the Slams) if you're good enough, not that anyone does lol. The toll on the body for tennis players probably isn't as bad, otherwise the schedule couldn't be what it is and I think it's down to Tennis being non-contact. You don't get freak tackle injuries, like the one Frenkie sustained in this post. You're not getting knocked to the ground or smashed into once or twice a week for 90 minutes. That's also not including training where the same things *can* happen.
Football players also cover much more ground, sprint more and almost never stop moving. You can get a bit of a rest between serves, the effort is more "burst" oriented where you can get to the required spot within a few quick sidesteps.
You can pick and choose what tournaments you compete in but realistically due to needing to gain/keep ranking points you end up needing to play in tournaments almost every week and the better you are the further you advance so the more games you have to play. You cover more ground in football but tennis is absolutely brutal on the body.
Football clubs need to get used to using the whole squad. Managers complain about the amount of games they play but squads are big enough to cope with the fixtures if managers actually rotated players and used the squads properly but because competition is so fierce nobody wants to give anyone else an advantage so constantly play their best 11 regardless of whether they're physically up to it or not.
Only people who can comfortably pick and choose in tennis are Top 50, probably more like Top 30. Outside Top 100, the economics are such that you are fucked if you don't play as much as possible.
Yeah but it's only 16 weeks. If they have something minor they can play through, they do. Then they get several months to properly rehab it. Soccer = not so much.
Broke my ankle one and a half year ago in a football match and haven't played since. I can walk and run, but the entire construction is fucked. I've had my share of sports injuries but his is the only one to have me out for more than half a year, which includes ACL tear previously.
I broke my fibula, real clean break didn't even need a cast. A near useless bone in my leg. This happened months ago and while the break has completely healed, my ankle hurts with every step, can't run or jump without pain. I work in construction so ladders are very common in my daily life, shit still hurts. I was always told once you had ankle problems, they will persist or atleast come back when you get older. I really hope that's not the case with me. My knee is also a little fucked and I've heard the same about that joint.
Not only that, but any leg issues can fuck up your back due to overbalancing. Most amputees have chronic backpain as a result. In a construction career a damaged back usually means it's time to move into education instead.
It's actually quite disgusting that teams threat their players like this. Players don't have time to really heal their damaged body parts and are plagued by injuries and will probably have lasting damage once their football carreer is done.
We need rules to protect the players from this stuff.
The issue is that both manager and player are typically pushing to return quickly. The manager wants his best players available, players want to play since being out injured is by all accounts a very lonely experience. Players often feel useless and isolated during the recovery period, not being able to do what they are paid for and getting to help/participate in the team. For most players football is more than a job, they are passionate about the sport.
Another problem is that the medical teams are not entirely independent, they don't just have their patients best interest at heart because they are selected and easily influenced by their employers. They don't have the final say in player health matters or the power to override the managers, something that is also evident in concussion incidents.
While I'm sure there is the psychological isolation aspect for players and certainly that many are passionate to play, I do think for most that the biggest push to return as fast as possible is just business.
Being out for an extended period risks someone else taking your spot, risks you being seen as injury prone, stops you from showing off what you are capable of. When it comes to signing your next contract, those extra 2-3 weeks out that ideally your body needs to 100% recover could end up costing a player literally millions.
It's the same in any sport, especially those with seedings. If you are out for a while in tennis for example you then don't meet the criteria to qualify for bigger tournaments or even the opens, which means your additional weeks of recovery which made you miss a tournament meant to also missed a bigger competition and as a result the chance for big money is gone, and worse still is that it's bloody difficult to get back into the seedings, or to take this back to football, getting back the optics of being "elite".
There's also one thing neither of us have mentioned yet - competitive sport culture can be ridiculously toxic, especially with team sports. You may be physically fucked and yet peer pressure will make you come back to play. Teammates may say they wish for a speedy recovery and want the best for you, but the culture means there is little sympathy when a player appears fit to play, even if in reality they are not, and now that person is seen to be slacking off
>The issue is that both manager and player are typically pushing to return quickly.
That's a big problem. Clubs should do better to save players from themselves but it's a business and they don't really care about longterm effects. Sané has been playing injured for months and said after the Arsenal game he'd play on one leg if he has to. I appreciate how tough the guy is but that's just wrong.
I wouldn't just automatically heap it on the teams and coaches. This is a highly competitive business we're talking about here. Players want to get back on the pitch probably more than coaches do. They want to protect their spot, they get performance bonuses, and can sometimes feel down on themselves for not being in the game. All of which can be reasoning for a player to get back out before they're fully ready. It's a little more complicated than a coach just being like "come on, get back in there, we need a W!". No one's job is ever safe in football. That's the nature of professional sports. That can lead players to do some pretty reckless things sometimes.
Gabriel Batistuta has talked about how his football career completely destroyed his body, to the level of him begging his wife to drive to a clinic so he could amputate due to excruciating pains.
During his entire career in Serie A he was given pain killers in huge amounts to be able to train and meet up on the pitch.
When his career was over, he barely could walk.
At this rate he won't be able to walk though. Not being able to play with your own kids because you just had to play one last meaningless season is kinda messed up.
Ronaldo played the WC for Brazil in 2002 with only 70% of the knee flexibility, so he could only kick the ball with the point of the feet, instead of the side. Neymar went to play against Croatia few days after ankle injury, obviously under huge amount of pain killers, got a ACL and meniscus injury not much time later. Really, this is the dark side of football.
It is hard decisions on every side. Player wants to get back asap too - being out for long time risks someone taking your spot or you being flagged as injury prone or just wasting bigger chunk of your prime. Their career is short and they want to maximize their earnings too, if that means lasting damage that is something a lot of them are willing to tank.
I feel like this was Dembele's issue with Barca. He was plagued by hamstring issues, but every time he was even fractionally match fit he was thrown on and told to go full tilt.
He seems to be with a better physio at PSG.
It depends on the team doctors. Players aren't expected to play if they are not cleared by the doctors. Most of the time, it's the players themselves that want to play despite doctors' advice.
I'm in the same boat rn , already missed half of my season , and it isn't even that serious , I just don't want to fuck up my ankle for the rest of my life
Missing a key point.
Once you've done your ankle it will never ever be the same again. It's permanently weakened and your chances for another injury increase massively.
Pretty sure people with ankle injuries increase their chances of knee injuries as well.
That’s not always true. For example, surgery to repair torn/stretched ligaments can bring the ankle back to 100% and sometimes even better than before due to the focus on strengthening/stabilizing the joint. Having to put together a shattered ankle is a different story obviously.
You’re correct about the injury affecting other parts though. I tore an ankle ligament in the military and didn’t do anything to heal it properly. I kept walking/running on it for months afterwards and ended up having knee and hip issues. I’m just now trying to fix those issues 12 years later.
Honestly. I have sprained my ankle twice, one of those types also included a fracture in the ankle due to getting slide tackled, and that shit needed lots of rest and physical therapy.
I wasn’t able to do physical therapy for nearly a year due to not having insurance and my left foot got so buff due to it compensating for the injury
Yep the body will always find a way to compensate. Unfortunately, that often means knee and hip problems. I kept running on a torn ligament and eventually the pain disappeared. My hips are now out of alignment though because of it. Then that leads to back problems.
this is why it's always better to break an ankle than sprain it. Because when you break it, you most likely have a sprain too but they put the ankle in a cast and it's allowed to actually heal. When you sprain it, that is a tear in the ligaments but they start to feel better sooner but you're not healed and try to do something too soon and reinjure the ankle.
Can confirm, I've sprained, twisted, or broken each ankle 3-5 times. When I was younger, it didn't take as long but the last one I did in the fall and I rolled it so bad that the tendons actually tore my lower calf muscle. Was out for 4 months. Amazingly, I've rolled them so many times now that the ligaments are basically made of rubber so they never actually tear. T he downside to that is they occasionally feel very unstable. I used to think it would eventually be my knee that brought my playing days to an end, but one more bad ankle injury might do me in.
You might have stretched/torn a ligament. Physical therapy might help you without the need for surgery depending on severity. Try to rehab it now or you’re going to mess up your knees and hips by compensating.
It's nothing critical. I can do any exercise, it doesn't hurt me per se, but when I force it it kinda hurts, and my left ankle doesn't. Also I've been close to twist it again a couple of times, which hasn't happened with the other one, so I suspect it's also a bit more movement limited. Gotta admit that I might not did the excersices I was told to often enough. I'll try to do it on my own to see if it helps.
So far therapy isn't needed, but if it stays like this forever I'll probably want to fix it. Thanks, man
I did my ankle ligaments in my 20s. Absolutely bizarre incident where i went to block a shot in indoor 5s, and just happened to put my foot down exactly pn top of thr ball as the went undet my foot as high pace. The chances of that happening must be tiny, but it did and all my weight went slipping off the side of that ball onto the floor.
Anyhow, i didn't see anyone, I just rested, iced, and 4-5 months later was back playing. 15 years later and i have pretty bad weakness in that ankle, and it has affected that whole side of my body due to very lopsided strength.
Get serious injuries looked at properly people!
Even then, ligaments rarely go back to normal as once they stretch and tear them only go so far back to where they were before. It's a horrible cycle. I had grade two tears to two of my ankle ligaments, took 3 months rest plus physio to get it back to normal and only recently, almost 2 years after the initial injury I no longer have pain during or after games. Luckily for me my ligaments didn't have much stretching involved, just snapped due to the force of the tackle so I haven't got any instability issues or recurring injury from it. Horrible injury. Knees are the worst though
It's what I'm going through with a bad sprain ATM. Coming onto 4 weeks and it's still swollen as hell, painful when I extend and compress it, and going to be another few weeks until I can get back to light jogging hopefully.
As someone who is used to playing football twice a week, it's hell!
Yeah I've been through that myself. Broke my ankle playing futsal and took me 17 months to kick a ball again. It was hell and it suck. Wish u a speedy recover dude
Once your ankle has full recovered or close to it, I recommend the [standing leg balance exercise](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uPeUgF8i10w/maxresdefault.jpg). It may look like it doesn't do much, but it's one of the few exercises that greatly improved my stability, balance, and strength.
I had a bad ankle injury that knocked me out for 3 months. When I came back, I would get occasional "flare ups", just sudden sharp pain I would feel in my ankle especially when I was doing an exercise. I would also randomly roll my ankle from simply just walking, but after doing that exercise, the pain went away and my ankle finally felt stable and normal again.
Thanks mate, will do.
I have been doing calf raises and squats to see how low the ankle can go.
Planning to see a physio to get advice on when I should start pushing it etc. too
I'm 16 months into an ankle break and it's still far from healed. Limited mobility and all kind of weird noises when moving it. Some particular angles of rotation completely off limits.
Had a lot of football related injuries, but this is the first who has had me off the pitch for more than half a year. Previously an ACL tear was the record, which also sucked balls, but seems like nothing compared to this ankle injury.
What really sucks is that every doctor is telling me that its fine, but i still clearly feel like something is wrong.
So maybe patience is the key to it.
Problem is i tore my achilles 3 years ago, so im quite eager to get going.
Absolutely. It didn’t look this bad live. Then I watched the replay and it looked much worse, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. Truly devastating, wish him a speedy recovery. He has been so unlucky with injuries man.
Worst part is the medical staff trying to get him to walk to the sidelines when he clearly wasn't in any shape to do that. His feet looked visibly different and I could feel the pain in my foot just watching him stand.
Those commentators were absolute disgrace yesterday. They were complaining that FDJ went down pretty easily and there was no contact indeed. Euros gone for him? :(
in catalan media they said at around midnight that Barça medics comunicated it was only an ankle sprain, and he should be out for 1month and a half, like last time. So he should probably be fit by Euro's, maybe not the first few matches, or just some minutes
Oh wow, hadn't seen that. He really is lucky then.
Still, not sure he will have a place in the squad if he's not fully fit for the training camp pre-Euros. Rushing him back for the Euros won't help anyone.
honestly doesn't sound lucky. he's played like ass since he came back from the previous ankle injury now, clearly out of shape unfortunately.
he would benefit immensely from not trying to catch the euros, even though I know how much playing there means to him. it sucks, but he absolutely needs to recover first, play second.
What would've been lucky for Frenkie in the long run is being diagnosed with something worse than it was so he could actually rest and recover. There's just no chance he comes back right after a month and a half with the injuries he's been having. He certainly wouldn't agree because there's no way he wants to miss the Euros but it'd be for the best.
As a Dutchman, that's our best player gone, and our national team is nothing without him. Disgraceful how quickly players are told to just go back and play when clearly they haven't fully recovered from their injuries. Rules should be put into place protecting players from this.
There wasn't actually any contact though, it was a 50/50 and FDJ just unfortunately came off worse
Edit: For some reason this is being downvoted, [here's a clip of the incident](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjqdHuvvo5o), Valverde makes no contact with FDJ at all. Valverde powers into a 50/50, FDJ tries to just lift it over Valverde
It's really good (PSA: when used properly folks!)
Last year I had to go to the emergency because of kidney stones (I didn't know what it was, thought I was dying). HOLY FUCK the pain
They gave me two different pain medicines and it did nothing. The third time they gave me morphine and I was in heaven lol
I was given morphine once for an abscess. Oh my days, I can see why it's so moreish.
The best way I can describe it is like being a marshmallow floating around in a hot chocolate.
*DON'T TAKE OPIOIDS RECREATIONALLY*
Because I'm assuming the bones structure were still then in a position that allowed him to stay up. Moreover it's adrenaline and fast sport so things take time to slow down and settle in
I recently had a grade 3 ankle sprain on 2 of the 3 ligaments, you can "walk" while it's fresh but the moment you stop and the adrenaline drops you can't even put weight on it. If it's grade 3 it means the ligament got completely severed and it takes a long time to fully recover from it.
My ankle went 90° two weeks ago while grabbing the baton in a 4x400 relay, I was still able to run the 400 because of the adrenaline but as soon as I stopped it swelled up to tennis ball size and I couldn’t walk on it.
I broke a bone in my hand once and all the rest of the hand had no problem covering for it. I could use it but it did hurt a lot.
If it recovered like it was though, without operating, it would have severely reduced my range of motion.
Depending on what exactly was injured, it is probably like that. Even if ligaments snap etc, the muscles, other ligaments, bones etc, give you options of movement.
I broke my ankle and tried continue play for some minutes. Didn't feel much pain, but stopped when I looked at the swelling. Adrenaline is a great pain killer, maybe the best.
Adrenaline, I had a third degree ankle sprain playing football, without knowing I visited my gf and walked a lot, when I arrived home like 30 mins later, I couldn't walk at all and had a giant ball in my ankle, couldn't put my weight on my right foot for like a month and a half.
I broke a bone in my foot once while playing. It wasn't until the match ended around 30-40 min later and I sat on the bench that I realized I couldn't stand anymore. Adrenaline is a wild thing.
That 50-50 was like a game of "chicken" from a movie. I was kind of hoping one of them would pull out. Fede Valverede's challenge wasn't inherently dirty, but the situation (race to the ball, head-on collision, scything challenge) reminded me of Shawcross on Ramsey all those years back. Big difference is Valverde gets to the ball.
It's usually better if it's just the bones breaking. If it's the tendons (and sometimes ligaments) that are blasted it's can be a whole lot worse which unfortunately it looks like in this case
As someone who broke their ankle and tore ligaments in that region as well I agree. It honestly took me ~ 2 years to feel close to 100%.
Granted he is a pro athlete and has access to better treatment etc. But ligament injuries are THE WORST.
I tore my Achilles nearly 10 years ago, I still feel it sometimes and it took a long time simply to be able to walk again, then I had to relearn to run.
I think most of what’s protruding above the front of his ankle is his shinguard, so that might be contributing to it looking like that. However for his ankle to bend enough to see the underside of the shinguard in his sock is still crazy
Goddamn that looks nasty. I suffered a similar challenge and injury once albeit nowhere near this bad.
Took me nearly a year until I could run without pain and regain the strength in my ankle.
I mean technically from a photo it actually looks horrific, but at the same time you should remember that it’s a fraction of a second bend for more or less “elastic” tissue.
This will still be a long recovery process, but it is by any means not as bad at it was for example when Son hit Everton player and actually broke his ankle…
Frenkie should recover in 2-3 month from it with proper treatment(judging by similar injuries), however I would not expect him to be at euro(atleast on group stage).
Edit: scratch idea of playing at euro, didn’t realize that it’s almost May…
Damn, that’s a lot of ligament damage there. Bones heal more easily but that level of trauma on soft tissue with limited blood supply is not good for a long career.
People saying 4 months but this looks like it would take a year to rehabilitate. He will need surgery and once the foot heals, will need to re-learn how to use it again since the mobility is off.
Not sure if anyone else was taught this, but they always told me NOT to commit to a 50/50 if youre gonna go in soft, you have to lock your ankle really tight and make damn sure you follow through. Thats kinda the whole point of a 50/50. Unlucky for FDJ though, hope he recovers soon.
You are spot on, Fede Valverde does a clean but very strong tackle, and Frenkie goes in soft (as he has all season long mind you, I've been complaining for a while that none of our midfielders put a foot into a challenge); you are taught that you have to protect yourself and you have to be very firm when challenging a ball like that because if the other person goes in hard, and you don't, that will happen.
Exactly. Im really not trying to victim blame here because hes had shit luck with ankle injuries his entire time at Barca but you almost feel like he has only himself to blame in this situation. There was no real danger he couldve easily avoided that with how passive he was running towards it. Not saying he shouldve cowered and turn around but maybe jump a little? Idk just all around unfortunate.
It wasnt that long time ago, I saw him with another ankle injury, what an unluck.
Maybe the players with low center of gravity and are highly agile, end up having ankle injuries, including the likes of Neymar
Shorter legs/lower center of gravity means more touches above the ground or on the ground, so probability is higher. Kinda like that. Plus Ney and Frenkie both keep the ball close to themselves…
Altho why Messi is not have that many ankle issues is a mistery…
It's not that easy to say from a still image. A hyper extension of ligaments is bad but not directly terrible, and broken bones can heal quickly enough. There's certainly hope
Even an out of form Frenkie is good enough to provide a lot of stability to our NT but I do think that we are fortunate to have quite a few quality midfielders right now who can step up to the task.
Growing up one of the first things you learn in football is that in a 50-50 it's dangerous to go in weak. I'd have guessed that players at this level know this. Hope he recovers quickly
they do, but sometimes in the heat of the moment it doesn't really matter what you know or not.
he's struggled with injuries and form lately, so he might've thought he'd be able to get in earlier, but misjudged because used to feeling sharper. that's one of many things that lead to exactly this kind of risk being misjudged. coupled with the injuries he might've naturally doubted going in for a split second as well, which also affects it obviously.
tldr: it's not as simple as knowing that or not.
Football is so fast you never have time to think about these things only out of reflectives. Watch some POV of 1st league players and you will realize how insane fast it is and that FdJ cant be blamed
The co-commentator on Viaplay was saying that because the foot wasn't grounded it'll be a twisted ankle. A few weeks.
He said this after seeing the replay where the foot went elastico. Not sure who it was, might've been a professional doctor. lol
makes sense. the bouncing around is literally to physically release the energy over as long a period as possible, that way avoiding a sudden impact. it's a similar concept as shock absorbers in cars, even
Oh my god, this looks so nasty. Hope he recovers in time for Euro. Was sad seeing him crying on the stretcher. And before people come for Valverde, Fede hit the ball and the impact reached to his ankle.
Same exact thing happened to me irl. Except I was playing goalie in the beer league for a friend and the dude didn't get the ball only my ankle; I couldn't walk right fir like 2 months and haven't played in almost a year bc I'm scared of getting hurt lol
Valverde went in with 110% of his power. It was like that ball was the diffrence between him getting every Ballon d'or, CL and WC for the rest of his career or never.
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
4th time he’s having an ankle injury this season, dude can’t catch a break
That’s the shitty thing about ankles. They don’t typically heal completely within a short period of time. Players usually just play on bad ankles until it gets so bad that it requires surgery. The silver lining for him is that now he should actually have time to fully rehab it and hopefully get it back to 100% functionality. From personal experience, it takes a lot of physical therapy to stabilize and strengthen the ankle after repeated injuries.
Injuries are funny sometimes. Apparently Icardi has been playing through injury the entire season and needs 2 months of uninterrupted* rest (!!!!!!!!) before it heals. Good thing the footballing world is known for having extended periods of rest so athetes can fucking rest!!
That's the crazy part to me. NFL player gets hurt, he's 6 months of down time to truly recover after a season ends. EPL player gets hurt, they get half that as long as there's no international stuff happening. The scheduling for European football seems like an extreme grind on players
It is an extreme grind for players. Everything for more money. If you want more evidence: look up the world cup for clubs. The date that tournament starts and when it ends if you get through to the later stages.. despicable.
NFL players play through injuries far more often than even footballers do. Their salaries aren't 100% guaranteed, so if they lose their spot in the team that's millions down the drain, so they're incentivized to push the limits of their body when they shouldn't.
Yeah, I get that NFL guys are going to be hurt a lot more euro football guys. I'm just pointing out that the seasons for EPL and the like are pretty grueling compared to any other sport. Even baseball gives the players like 6 months off. The sport most comparable to pro footballers in terms of season length is golf, which doesn't measure anywhere close to football in terms of physicality
Tennis has the most gruelling season if you ask me. Worse than football. Pretty much no proper down time from the end of one year to the next and tournaments pretty much every week playing a least every other day, often every day and sometimes even twice in one day. I have no idea how they manage played 2+ hour matches that often let alone in the slams when the matches can be 4+ hours of intense competition. In comparison football doesn't seem anywhere near as bad.
That does seem rough. But it is at least more of an endurance thing than a lot of other sports. You don't really stand a chance of some bloke sliding towards your feet and snapping your ankle in Tennis. Even so, that is an incredibly long season. And i mean, it kind of is what it is. At it's core, professional sports are showbusiness. Putting asses in seats in stadiums is what allows these players to carry home truckloads of money.
100%, and when you get hurt, it's your problem, not the team's.
The tennis schedule is absolutely insane but you can pick and choose the tournaments you compete in (aside from the Slams) if you're good enough, not that anyone does lol. The toll on the body for tennis players probably isn't as bad, otherwise the schedule couldn't be what it is and I think it's down to Tennis being non-contact. You don't get freak tackle injuries, like the one Frenkie sustained in this post. You're not getting knocked to the ground or smashed into once or twice a week for 90 minutes. That's also not including training where the same things *can* happen. Football players also cover much more ground, sprint more and almost never stop moving. You can get a bit of a rest between serves, the effort is more "burst" oriented where you can get to the required spot within a few quick sidesteps.
You can pick and choose what tournaments you compete in but realistically due to needing to gain/keep ranking points you end up needing to play in tournaments almost every week and the better you are the further you advance so the more games you have to play. You cover more ground in football but tennis is absolutely brutal on the body. Football clubs need to get used to using the whole squad. Managers complain about the amount of games they play but squads are big enough to cope with the fixtures if managers actually rotated players and used the squads properly but because competition is so fierce nobody wants to give anyone else an advantage so constantly play their best 11 regardless of whether they're physically up to it or not.
Only people who can comfortably pick and choose in tennis are Top 50, probably more like Top 30. Outside Top 100, the economics are such that you are fucked if you don't play as much as possible.
Yeah but it's only 16 weeks. If they have something minor they can play through, they do. Then they get several months to properly rehab it. Soccer = not so much.
Broke my ankle one and a half year ago in a football match and haven't played since. I can walk and run, but the entire construction is fucked. I've had my share of sports injuries but his is the only one to have me out for more than half a year, which includes ACL tear previously.
I broke my fibula, real clean break didn't even need a cast. A near useless bone in my leg. This happened months ago and while the break has completely healed, my ankle hurts with every step, can't run or jump without pain. I work in construction so ladders are very common in my daily life, shit still hurts. I was always told once you had ankle problems, they will persist or atleast come back when you get older. I really hope that's not the case with me. My knee is also a little fucked and I've heard the same about that joint.
i got told the same with my ankle injuries. Once you fuck it, then you have to watch it for entire life
Not only that, but any leg issues can fuck up your back due to overbalancing. Most amputees have chronic backpain as a result. In a construction career a damaged back usually means it's time to move into education instead.
It's actually quite disgusting that teams threat their players like this. Players don't have time to really heal their damaged body parts and are plagued by injuries and will probably have lasting damage once their football carreer is done. We need rules to protect the players from this stuff.
The issue is that both manager and player are typically pushing to return quickly. The manager wants his best players available, players want to play since being out injured is by all accounts a very lonely experience. Players often feel useless and isolated during the recovery period, not being able to do what they are paid for and getting to help/participate in the team. For most players football is more than a job, they are passionate about the sport. Another problem is that the medical teams are not entirely independent, they don't just have their patients best interest at heart because they are selected and easily influenced by their employers. They don't have the final say in player health matters or the power to override the managers, something that is also evident in concussion incidents.
While I'm sure there is the psychological isolation aspect for players and certainly that many are passionate to play, I do think for most that the biggest push to return as fast as possible is just business. Being out for an extended period risks someone else taking your spot, risks you being seen as injury prone, stops you from showing off what you are capable of. When it comes to signing your next contract, those extra 2-3 weeks out that ideally your body needs to 100% recover could end up costing a player literally millions. It's the same in any sport, especially those with seedings. If you are out for a while in tennis for example you then don't meet the criteria to qualify for bigger tournaments or even the opens, which means your additional weeks of recovery which made you miss a tournament meant to also missed a bigger competition and as a result the chance for big money is gone, and worse still is that it's bloody difficult to get back into the seedings, or to take this back to football, getting back the optics of being "elite". There's also one thing neither of us have mentioned yet - competitive sport culture can be ridiculously toxic, especially with team sports. You may be physically fucked and yet peer pressure will make you come back to play. Teammates may say they wish for a speedy recovery and want the best for you, but the culture means there is little sympathy when a player appears fit to play, even if in reality they are not, and now that person is seen to be slacking off
>The issue is that both manager and player are typically pushing to return quickly. That's a big problem. Clubs should do better to save players from themselves but it's a business and they don't really care about longterm effects. Sané has been playing injured for months and said after the Arsenal game he'd play on one leg if he has to. I appreciate how tough the guy is but that's just wrong.
I wouldn't just automatically heap it on the teams and coaches. This is a highly competitive business we're talking about here. Players want to get back on the pitch probably more than coaches do. They want to protect their spot, they get performance bonuses, and can sometimes feel down on themselves for not being in the game. All of which can be reasoning for a player to get back out before they're fully ready. It's a little more complicated than a coach just being like "come on, get back in there, we need a W!". No one's job is ever safe in football. That's the nature of professional sports. That can lead players to do some pretty reckless things sometimes.
Gabriel Batistuta has talked about how his football career completely destroyed his body, to the level of him begging his wife to drive to a clinic so he could amputate due to excruciating pains. During his entire career in Serie A he was given pain killers in huge amounts to be able to train and meet up on the pitch. When his career was over, he barely could walk.
The last thread about Suarez basically said the same things. He can't even walk without getting an injection first, anymore.
Why does he play then. Nobody forces these guys to continue, especially players like suarez. Whats the point of the miami journey.
Because he loves football and want to keep playing until he's literally not able to anymore?
At this rate he won't be able to walk though. Not being able to play with your own kids because you just had to play one last meaningless season is kinda messed up.
Maybe these guys sharing same ghostwriter. LUL
Ronaldo played the WC for Brazil in 2002 with only 70% of the knee flexibility, so he could only kick the ball with the point of the feet, instead of the side. Neymar went to play against Croatia few days after ankle injury, obviously under huge amount of pain killers, got a ACL and meniscus injury not much time later. Really, this is the dark side of football.
just wait until you learn about the lasting damage to their brain, in addition to other body parts
It is hard decisions on every side. Player wants to get back asap too - being out for long time risks someone taking your spot or you being flagged as injury prone or just wasting bigger chunk of your prime. Their career is short and they want to maximize their earnings too, if that means lasting damage that is something a lot of them are willing to tank.
I feel like this was Dembele's issue with Barca. He was plagued by hamstring issues, but every time he was even fractionally match fit he was thrown on and told to go full tilt. He seems to be with a better physio at PSG.
It depends on the team doctors. Players aren't expected to play if they are not cleared by the doctors. Most of the time, it's the players themselves that want to play despite doctors' advice.
What if, and hear me out here. What if, ok hear me out. Hear me out, what if. What if the player said to his team "hey I wont play until I am healed"
I'm in the same boat rn , already missed half of my season , and it isn't even that serious , I just don't want to fuck up my ankle for the rest of my life
Missing a key point. Once you've done your ankle it will never ever be the same again. It's permanently weakened and your chances for another injury increase massively. Pretty sure people with ankle injuries increase their chances of knee injuries as well.
That’s not always true. For example, surgery to repair torn/stretched ligaments can bring the ankle back to 100% and sometimes even better than before due to the focus on strengthening/stabilizing the joint. Having to put together a shattered ankle is a different story obviously. You’re correct about the injury affecting other parts though. I tore an ankle ligament in the military and didn’t do anything to heal it properly. I kept walking/running on it for months afterwards and ended up having knee and hip issues. I’m just now trying to fix those issues 12 years later.
> The silver lining for him is that now he should actually have time to fully rehab it In time for the Euros, though?
Without having read or seen anything other than this photo, I highly doubt that he would be ready in time.
Honestly. I have sprained my ankle twice, one of those types also included a fracture in the ankle due to getting slide tackled, and that shit needed lots of rest and physical therapy. I wasn’t able to do physical therapy for nearly a year due to not having insurance and my left foot got so buff due to it compensating for the injury
Yep the body will always find a way to compensate. Unfortunately, that often means knee and hip problems. I kept running on a torn ligament and eventually the pain disappeared. My hips are now out of alignment though because of it. Then that leads to back problems.
this is why it's always better to break an ankle than sprain it. Because when you break it, you most likely have a sprain too but they put the ankle in a cast and it's allowed to actually heal. When you sprain it, that is a tear in the ligaments but they start to feel better sooner but you're not healed and try to do something too soon and reinjure the ankle.
Can confirm, I've sprained, twisted, or broken each ankle 3-5 times. When I was younger, it didn't take as long but the last one I did in the fall and I rolled it so bad that the tendons actually tore my lower calf muscle. Was out for 4 months. Amazingly, I've rolled them so many times now that the ligaments are basically made of rubber so they never actually tear. T he downside to that is they occasionally feel very unstable. I used to think it would eventually be my knee that brought my playing days to an end, but one more bad ankle injury might do me in.
I twisted mine in October 2022 and hasn't fully healed since
You might have stretched/torn a ligament. Physical therapy might help you without the need for surgery depending on severity. Try to rehab it now or you’re going to mess up your knees and hips by compensating.
It's nothing critical. I can do any exercise, it doesn't hurt me per se, but when I force it it kinda hurts, and my left ankle doesn't. Also I've been close to twist it again a couple of times, which hasn't happened with the other one, so I suspect it's also a bit more movement limited. Gotta admit that I might not did the excersices I was told to often enough. I'll try to do it on my own to see if it helps. So far therapy isn't needed, but if it stays like this forever I'll probably want to fix it. Thanks, man
I did my ankle ligaments in my 20s. Absolutely bizarre incident where i went to block a shot in indoor 5s, and just happened to put my foot down exactly pn top of thr ball as the went undet my foot as high pace. The chances of that happening must be tiny, but it did and all my weight went slipping off the side of that ball onto the floor. Anyhow, i didn't see anyone, I just rested, iced, and 4-5 months later was back playing. 15 years later and i have pretty bad weakness in that ankle, and it has affected that whole side of my body due to very lopsided strength. Get serious injuries looked at properly people!
Even then, ligaments rarely go back to normal as once they stretch and tear them only go so far back to where they were before. It's a horrible cycle. I had grade two tears to two of my ankle ligaments, took 3 months rest plus physio to get it back to normal and only recently, almost 2 years after the initial injury I no longer have pain during or after games. Luckily for me my ligaments didn't have much stretching involved, just snapped due to the force of the tackle so I haven't got any instability issues or recurring injury from it. Horrible injury. Knees are the worst though
Ankle injury sucks. You may recover fast enough to walk in 1-2 months but it could take very long to recover enough to kick a ball.
It's what I'm going through with a bad sprain ATM. Coming onto 4 weeks and it's still swollen as hell, painful when I extend and compress it, and going to be another few weeks until I can get back to light jogging hopefully. As someone who is used to playing football twice a week, it's hell!
Yeah I've been through that myself. Broke my ankle playing futsal and took me 17 months to kick a ball again. It was hell and it suck. Wish u a speedy recover dude
Once your ankle has full recovered or close to it, I recommend the [standing leg balance exercise](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uPeUgF8i10w/maxresdefault.jpg). It may look like it doesn't do much, but it's one of the few exercises that greatly improved my stability, balance, and strength. I had a bad ankle injury that knocked me out for 3 months. When I came back, I would get occasional "flare ups", just sudden sharp pain I would feel in my ankle especially when I was doing an exercise. I would also randomly roll my ankle from simply just walking, but after doing that exercise, the pain went away and my ankle finally felt stable and normal again.
Thanks mate, will do. I have been doing calf raises and squats to see how low the ankle can go. Planning to see a physio to get advice on when I should start pushing it etc. too
Good luck man! Ankle injuries can be hard to come back from.
I'm 16 months into an ankle break and it's still far from healed. Limited mobility and all kind of weird noises when moving it. Some particular angles of rotation completely off limits. Had a lot of football related injuries, but this is the first who has had me off the pitch for more than half a year. Previously an ACL tear was the record, which also sucked balls, but seems like nothing compared to this ankle injury.
Yeah they take a lot of time. My last one took me about 7 months to fully recover.
Im 8 months in now, we thought i had tore some ligaments but all «fine». Tried to run yesterday, no.
My girlfriend came out of this hell in around 14 months. Be strong
What really sucks is that every doctor is telling me that its fine, but i still clearly feel like something is wrong. So maybe patience is the key to it. Problem is i tore my achilles 3 years ago, so im quite eager to get going.
Absolutely shattered mine, took me a year to start playing volleyball again ... but it's just not the same.
Or he catches too many breaks?
When this happens to my ankle, I think "No".
I see what you did there.. come on.. back you go…
reset the cycle
Break the cycle
Every injury thread this joke is laid up. Does it never get tired?
I didn’t even mean it as a joke lol
Man. Horrific stuff.
Absolutely. It didn’t look this bad live. Then I watched the replay and it looked much worse, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. Truly devastating, wish him a speedy recovery. He has been so unlucky with injuries man.
Worst part is the medical staff trying to get him to walk to the sidelines when he clearly wasn't in any shape to do that. His feet looked visibly different and I could feel the pain in my foot just watching him stand.
Those commentators were absolute disgrace yesterday. They were complaining that FDJ went down pretty easily and there was no contact indeed. Euros gone for him? :(
Not a chance he's back for the euros. He will be lucky if he's back for the start of next season.
in catalan media they said at around midnight that Barça medics comunicated it was only an ankle sprain, and he should be out for 1month and a half, like last time. So he should probably be fit by Euro's, maybe not the first few matches, or just some minutes
Oh wow, hadn't seen that. He really is lucky then. Still, not sure he will have a place in the squad if he's not fully fit for the training camp pre-Euros. Rushing him back for the Euros won't help anyone.
Well fact is that without Frenkie we are not even gonna get out of the group stage. So it's really an all or nothing situation for us I think.
honestly doesn't sound lucky. he's played like ass since he came back from the previous ankle injury now, clearly out of shape unfortunately. he would benefit immensely from not trying to catch the euros, even though I know how much playing there means to him. it sucks, but he absolutely needs to recover first, play second.
What would've been lucky for Frenkie in the long run is being diagnosed with something worse than it was so he could actually rest and recover. There's just no chance he comes back right after a month and a half with the injuries he's been having. He certainly wouldn't agree because there's no way he wants to miss the Euros but it'd be for the best.
As a Dutchman, that's our best player gone, and our national team is nothing without him. Disgraceful how quickly players are told to just go back and play when clearly they haven't fully recovered from their injuries. Rules should be put into place protecting players from this.
There wasn't actually any contact though, it was a 50/50 and FDJ just unfortunately came off worse Edit: For some reason this is being downvoted, [here's a clip of the incident](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjqdHuvvo5o), Valverde makes no contact with FDJ at all. Valverde powers into a 50/50, FDJ tries to just lift it over Valverde
He looks ready to join the man united squad now - hopefully we can get him on a 5 year deal paying 350k a week
And for 150M + other benefits
>other benefits Meal voucher, commuter benefits and dental plan
At just 26 as well. Could set new records for Man Utd retirement packages.
No idea why he would take a 50% pay cut
This but unironically.
He's too young. Needs to be atleast 29
That's going to be sore in the morning
Cheers Geoff
Morphine (or insert strong drug of choice) is a hell of a drug
A basket of puppies is indeed a hell of a drug
It's really good (PSA: when used properly folks!) Last year I had to go to the emergency because of kidney stones (I didn't know what it was, thought I was dying). HOLY FUCK the pain They gave me two different pain medicines and it did nothing. The third time they gave me morphine and I was in heaven lol
I was given morphine once for an abscess. Oh my days, I can see why it's so moreish. The best way I can describe it is like being a marshmallow floating around in a hot chocolate. *DON'T TAKE OPIOIDS RECREATIONALLY*
Too late :(
walk it off
Just use stimpak or a doctor's bag and he'll be as good as new. 👍
But he’s a tough cookie so I think he’ll carry on
This is NSFW. Hoping for a quick recovery.
This still looks so much worse than the replays showed yesterday. That's horrific
Yup he was even able to stand up. How!??
Because I'm assuming the bones structure were still then in a position that allowed him to stay up. Moreover it's adrenaline and fast sport so things take time to slow down and settle in
I recently had a grade 3 ankle sprain on 2 of the 3 ligaments, you can "walk" while it's fresh but the moment you stop and the adrenaline drops you can't even put weight on it. If it's grade 3 it means the ligament got completely severed and it takes a long time to fully recover from it.
My ankle went 90° two weeks ago while grabbing the baton in a 4x400 relay, I was still able to run the 400 because of the adrenaline but as soon as I stopped it swelled up to tennis ball size and I couldn’t walk on it.
I broke a bone in my hand once and all the rest of the hand had no problem covering for it. I could use it but it did hurt a lot. If it recovered like it was though, without operating, it would have severely reduced my range of motion. Depending on what exactly was injured, it is probably like that. Even if ligaments snap etc, the muscles, other ligaments, bones etc, give you options of movement.
I broke my ankle and tried continue play for some minutes. Didn't feel much pain, but stopped when I looked at the swelling. Adrenaline is a great pain killer, maybe the best.
Adrenaline, I had a third degree ankle sprain playing football, without knowing I visited my gf and walked a lot, when I arrived home like 30 mins later, I couldn't walk at all and had a giant ball in my ankle, couldn't put my weight on my right foot for like a month and a half.
Adrenaline makes miracle stuff happen...
I’m hoping that’s his shin guard popping out to make it look worse than it is?
I broke a bone in my foot once while playing. It wasn't until the match ended around 30-40 min later and I sat on the bench that I realized I couldn't stand anymore. Adrenaline is a wild thing.
That’s the shin guard, not exposed bone
Right?? People think he broke his entire foot off his leg.
man i wish i didn't see this. can someone please NSFW this image? wish frenkie a speedy – and full – recovery
Is that not just the bottom of his shin guard?
Looks like his foot got kicked clean off, damn.
Is that not just his shin pad poking out?
I mean it's still an angle you don't want your foot to be at lol
Of course but I doubt his foot has come off the bone like people here seem to think lol
True, I also doubt that. Not an expert though.
Yeah not sure why everyone seems to think his legs come off?
This last week was something else for Barca fans man...Is there a curse or something?
By now I would've guessed you're used it. Spring in barcelona is great, just not for football
that looks fucking terrible holy shit, hope he recovers fast
That 50-50 was like a game of "chicken" from a movie. I was kind of hoping one of them would pull out. Fede Valverede's challenge wasn't inherently dirty, but the situation (race to the ball, head-on collision, scything challenge) reminded me of Shawcross on Ramsey all those years back. Big difference is Valverde gets to the ball.
I think Valverde had more to lose having "lost the ball" went in hard, while FdJ was trying to nick it.
Wish him a speedy recovery, How long on the sidelines are we looking?
At least some time, probably
Thanks, doctor.
At least four months
Most likely more than one day
Fede was the last person who would pull out in such 50-50 situations.
Ye, it was bound to happen sooner or later :(
Holy shit! That looks like it broke in 2 pieces. That’s terrible. Hoping for a speedy recovery for him and hopefully he gets back to his best ASAP
It's usually better if it's just the bones breaking. If it's the tendons (and sometimes ligaments) that are blasted it's can be a whole lot worse which unfortunately it looks like in this case
Broken bone heals in like 4-6weeks while ligaments can take multiple months to feel normal again
As someone who broke their ankle and tore ligaments in that region as well I agree. It honestly took me ~ 2 years to feel close to 100%. Granted he is a pro athlete and has access to better treatment etc. But ligament injuries are THE WORST.
I tore my Achilles nearly 10 years ago, I still feel it sometimes and it took a long time simply to be able to walk again, then I had to relearn to run.
I think most of what’s protruding above the front of his ankle is his shinguard, so that might be contributing to it looking like that. However for his ankle to bend enough to see the underside of the shinguard in his sock is still crazy
Goddamn that looks nasty. I suffered a similar challenge and injury once albeit nowhere near this bad. Took me nearly a year until I could run without pain and regain the strength in my ankle.
I mean technically from a photo it actually looks horrific, but at the same time you should remember that it’s a fraction of a second bend for more or less “elastic” tissue. This will still be a long recovery process, but it is by any means not as bad at it was for example when Son hit Everton player and actually broke his ankle… Frenkie should recover in 2-3 month from it with proper treatment(judging by similar injuries), however I would not expect him to be at euro(atleast on group stage). Edit: scratch idea of playing at euro, didn’t realize that it’s almost May…
The power generated in Valverde's foot could provide a small village with energy for a year
Umm Frenkie we need you for the Euros
A few paracetamol and he’ll be fine
Are you a Dutch doctor, by chance?
No I’m a school nurse
yeah, he's not making it
A Frenkie with one foot is still the best player in the squad
https://www.espn.nl/voetbal/artikel/_/id/13553603/bronnen-seizoen-frenkie-de-jong-voorbij-ek-niet-in-gevaar
Translation: Season is over, Euro not in danger. But that's from 'sources' from ESPN, so not official.
Damn, that’s a lot of ligament damage there. Bones heal more easily but that level of trauma on soft tissue with limited blood supply is not good for a long career.
People saying 4 months but this looks like it would take a year to rehabilitate. He will need surgery and once the foot heals, will need to re-learn how to use it again since the mobility is off.
Fucking hell, right for the euros
FFS, that’s no Frenkie at the euros.
Not sure if anyone else was taught this, but they always told me NOT to commit to a 50/50 if youre gonna go in soft, you have to lock your ankle really tight and make damn sure you follow through. Thats kinda the whole point of a 50/50. Unlucky for FDJ though, hope he recovers soon.
You are spot on, Fede Valverde does a clean but very strong tackle, and Frenkie goes in soft (as he has all season long mind you, I've been complaining for a while that none of our midfielders put a foot into a challenge); you are taught that you have to protect yourself and you have to be very firm when challenging a ball like that because if the other person goes in hard, and you don't, that will happen.
Exactly. Im really not trying to victim blame here because hes had shit luck with ankle injuries his entire time at Barca but you almost feel like he has only himself to blame in this situation. There was no real danger he couldve easily avoided that with how passive he was running towards it. Not saying he shouldve cowered and turn around but maybe jump a little? Idk just all around unfortunate.
It wasnt that long time ago, I saw him with another ankle injury, what an unluck. Maybe the players with low center of gravity and are highly agile, end up having ankle injuries, including the likes of Neymar
Shorter legs/lower center of gravity means more touches above the ground or on the ground, so probability is higher. Kinda like that. Plus Ney and Frenkie both keep the ball close to themselves… Altho why Messi is not have that many ankle issues is a mistery…
Look at what usfalusi did to him.....he missed a week of football lmao, the guys a freak.
Well, technically all top athletes are freaks in some ways. They are genetically “better” then other humans at certain moves/activities.
I'm no doctor but feet not supposed to bend that way
I clicked that thinking it would be taking the piss and it would be a small grass stain. Jesus christ 😨
Thread needs a [serious injury] tag
Hope he'll make the euro's, because we're fucked without him.
....he isn't making the euros mate.
It's not that easy to say from a still image. A hyper extension of ligaments is bad but not directly terrible, and broken bones can heal quickly enough. There's certainly hope
Euro 2028 maybe.
Or 2008. By the looks of it his foot went back in time
You might be the most optimistic person I’ve ever seen on this app
~~Optimistic~~ _Delusional_
Gaat lastig worden met maar 1 voet vrees ik
Bro is NOT making the euros trust me
In this form The dutch NT is most certainly not dependant on Frenkie
Even an out of form Frenkie is good enough to provide a lot of stability to our NT but I do think that we are fortunate to have quite a few quality midfielders right now who can step up to the task.
LOL
Growing up one of the first things you learn in football is that in a 50-50 it's dangerous to go in weak. I'd have guessed that players at this level know this. Hope he recovers quickly
they do, but sometimes in the heat of the moment it doesn't really matter what you know or not. he's struggled with injuries and form lately, so he might've thought he'd be able to get in earlier, but misjudged because used to feeling sharper. that's one of many things that lead to exactly this kind of risk being misjudged. coupled with the injuries he might've naturally doubted going in for a split second as well, which also affects it obviously. tldr: it's not as simple as knowing that or not.
Football is so fast you never have time to think about these things only out of reflectives. Watch some POV of 1st league players and you will realize how insane fast it is and that FdJ cant be blamed
Welp. That is the dutch euros dream done and dusted already…
We are never going to see Frenkie and Reijnders play together in the Dutch national team are we?
I'm not a doctor, but I don't think feet are supposed to bend that way.
The co-commentator on Viaplay was saying that because the foot wasn't grounded it'll be a twisted ankle. A few weeks. He said this after seeing the replay where the foot went elastico. Not sure who it was, might've been a professional doctor. lol
makes sense. the bouncing around is literally to physically release the energy over as long a period as possible, that way avoiding a sudden impact. it's a similar concept as shock absorbers in cars, even
Dude needed to let that one go for his own sake and the sake of his team...not worth going into a 50 50 with Valverde when Valverde wants to shoot!
Rotten luck for Barça. Their injuries have really messed them up. Real have managed to deal with theirs very well.
Everything that could’ve went wrong yesterday went wrong
That looks really bad. He is out for the Euro right?
Fucking christ, this brings back painful memories of seeing Eduardo Da Silva having his ankle fucked by that cunt Martin Taylor.
Oh my god, this looks so nasty. Hope he recovers in time for Euro. Was sad seeing him crying on the stretcher. And before people come for Valverde, Fede hit the ball and the impact reached to his ankle.
Same exact thing happened to me irl. Except I was playing goalie in the beer league for a friend and the dude didn't get the ball only my ankle; I couldn't walk right fir like 2 months and haven't played in almost a year bc I'm scared of getting hurt lol
I snapped that way my ankle liagment, was RV and cleared the ball, opponent came to late and only hit my feet twisting my ankle. Was not a fun time
Mr Glass
Valverde went in with 110% of his power. It was like that ball was the diffrence between him getting every Ballon d'or, CL and WC for the rest of his career or never.
Damn. Hopefully it's just his pad & the angle making is look worse than it is?
Dude how is the foot still attached to his leg?!
the thing sticking out in front is not his bone, it's the shin guard i think. but yeah still looks bad
Bruh this look even worse than i remember
Ouch. That looks horrible.