A new hazard

On June 13, 2019, something that seemed like a fairy tale started. “I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was very little. Since I started playing in the garden at home with my brothers. At that moment I started to support Real Madrid”, confessed Eden Hazard, after taking a mass bath in his presentation with Madrid. He was 28 years old and It arrived with the band of Galácticoeven if he fled from her: “Not yet, I hope to be one day”. Almost three years later, he has just returned to training, that label is far away and he has before him, without the titanium plate that tormented him, the opportunity to reinvent yourself.

This March 29, Hazard decided that he could not wait any longer, it was time to say goodbye to the osteosynthesis plate on his right fibula that had caused him so many problems. Not only physical, but also mental. In 2017 his true ordeal began, suffering an infrasinsesmal fracture of the right fibula that led to three months off. On his return he was accompanied by a plate designed to give stability to the ankle joint. However, when the bright hazard began to lose its glow It was shortly after that massive presentation, on November 26, 2019.

PSG day…

After a start at tran tran, that of La Louviere began to take flight when, in a match against PSG, his compatriot Meunier muddied his progress with a tackle. The hematoma became a fissure and in February it worsened, forcing him to undergo surgery in March 2020. He put himself in the hands of Dr. Eugene Curry in Dallas and reappeared with a new titanium plate. But Chelsea’s Hazard did not reappear, but a version without a spark. The 2020-21 was not the campaign of his recovery either and he started the present one with five goals and eight assists to his credit. Numbers that endorsed the sensations, as diffuse as his physical state.

Ancelotti handed him the keys to the starting left wing in four of the first five days. However, the one who made his own the 11th lane It was a Vinicius who started the season on a rocket. The Brazilian calibrated his point of view while Hazard was losing importance in Carletto’s schemes. Some flashazolike his performance against Elche in the Copa (scored the final 1-2 in extra time), fueled hope, but the green shoots never finished germinating. When Eden understood that he had lost the trust of his technician, by linking five consecutive zero matches (Rayo, Real Sociedad, PSG, Mallorca and Barça) between February 26 and March 20, he opted for the aforementioned withdrawal of the plate of discord, the one that had him mentally blocked.

reinvention

Now a new horizon is presented to him. He starts from the starting box and it is he who he must gradually steal minute by minute from those who previously longed to take it away from him. Vinicius is now the one who aspires to be Galactic and Rodrygo walks hand in hand with the epic in recent games, Chelsea, Seville and City can attest to this. Without forgetting the expected signing of an Mbappé who has already been getting to know Madrid’s hospitality industry these days. Of course, he will not have the pressure of yesteryear and the remaining league games will have a preseason air for Hazard. He reappeared in Valdebebas with the rest of his teammates on Tuesday, in the first training session after the Madrid derby. He is fine physically and looks fit. Despite not having been part of the call, could have minutes in the coming clashes.

To regain confidence nothing better than matches like the one against Cádiz on Sunday or the one against Betis the next. The Champions League final against Liverpool will be another story. If he gets hold of the Fourteenth, he will add the first Big-eared to your private window. A joy to add to League 35, the one he celebrated with his teammates, as well as the comeback against City. There you could see a fully integrated Hazard, happy and smiling. The one that should also flourish on the pitch. His great obsession is to get to the World Cup well, in search of a great title with the golden generation of Belgium that has so many times been left at the gates. Hence his decision for the plate. He needs to play and, for this, he will have to fight for the minutes for the first time since he rose to the soccer elite. Now he has no status to defend, but must earn it. A new Hazard that must be reinvented.