330 days elapsed between the time the left knee of Marco Asensio did crack in Houston (USA) and that goal to Valencia at Di Stéfano 29 seconds after officially playing for Real Madrid again. A long process of pain, doubts, a lot of work in the shade and personal growth that the Balearic account in the first person in a long report broadcast on RMTV ('Asensio, the challenge').
“I try to protect the ball and nail the leg too much, I notice the crunchI know something is wrong. I had a moment of shock, of fearI looked at the bench asking for help … “This is how Asensio narrates the moment in which he suffers his most serious knee injury in the friendly against Arsenal.” Four seconds of exploration we already thought he was the crusader, “Jaime Abascal recalls on camera. , one of the doctors of the first white team. ”Asensio immediately realized what was coming at him. “Marco called me from the ambulance and he burst into tears”, adds Igor, the brother of the Balearic soccer player. Asensio himself recounts, in tears, the call to his father: “I tried not to worry him and only asked him if he had seen the play.”
Asensio, working in the Real Madrid hydrotherapy room in Valdebebas.
“It even hurt to blink …”
The first days were devastating. “It hurt until he blinked,” says Sandra Garal, the footballer's girlfriend. “He suffered a lot of pain in the knee, I cried in pain, every movement … I had to learn to overcome the pain in my head“recalls Asensio himself.” It was time to accept it and push it forward, but at first cost to assimilate. I knew that after the operation I did not have to think about playing, at first lower the inflammation and then go in small cycles, week by week. “
The bowels of Valdebebas and the visit of Llull
Asensio began very long days of rehabilitation with the José Chaves physios and in the hydrotherapy room, with the specialist Jaime García. Among his motivations was seeing the example of Sergi Llull, who suffered a severe knee injury as well. “Seeing how Llull recovered and seeing him in the final of a Basketball World Cup gives me morale”Asensio confesses at one point in the footage. “I asked him some questions, because everything was new to me, he gave me good advice and lots of encouragement, which be patient that comes out “. Llull himself would go to see his fellow footballer in Valdebebas. Asensio did not lack the affection of the white wardrobe. In his first race on the pitch, on day 184 of recovery, the cameras capture Marcelo (in civilian clothes) celebrating the event as if it were almost a goal. “What a joy boy!”, the Brazilian applauds him. “Just by seeing you like this I have won the day.” A recovery that stopped the pandemic, when Asensio had to confine himself and learn to recover in his own home. “In the end, there is no harm that does not come for good, Marco won 11 games on his calendar”, says Croatian Niko Mihic, the entity's chief doctor.
Marcelo congratulated Asensio the first day he went out to run in Valdebebas during the long process of his return to football.
“He said go out and score a goal”
This led to June 18, his return to football and that goal to Valencia. The image of Zidane, going to shake them just before entering, went around the world. “We understand each other just by looking at each other,” admits Asensio on camera. “He told me to enter from the right and score a goal, that's how it was”, he remembers laughing. He also did not abandon his smile, he showed it for the photo that immortalized his goal, when he met Florentino Pérez in the dressing room tunnel after the match. “I could not wait any longer”joked the striker. Everything became special, including his return shirt: “I would love to break it into many pieces and give it to so many who have helped me in my recovery.”
A process from which the white attacker draws vital teaching. “When I focus and I have a goal, I take it out, I have always done it in my life. It has been fighting against myself, against my head … that inner work, this process will help me in the future, for sure. Knowing where I am and where I want to go. “