Azkona's tour de force to return with her “new knee”

On June 9, Ane Azkona he heard a crack in a fortuitous set with a teammate in Athletic training in Zamudio. He suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. He had to undergo surgery to repair the fault. The Navarre front was operated in July. Inch by inch, without losing her smile, she has been gaining ground in her recovery and is already working on the grass of Lezama. With an eye on what the rest of the rojiblanco team does.

His return is expected as a great reinforcement for the last third of the season. In the past academic year 2019-20 he already took an important step forward to help the group of Villacampa in the face of difficulties. In his service record he scored five league goals in twenty games, fifteen of them already in the starting lineup.

Azkona (Iruñea, 7-15-1998) recalls in a video edited by Athletic, in which he begins with crutches in the garden at home, how he has lived the whole process. “On July 13 was the operation and luckily everything went well. I was discharged on the 15th, which coincides with my birthday, so they gave me a new knee ”, he launches in this rewind.

The rojiblanca forward shares the routine that she carries out in her rehabilitation. “The first thing I usually do is go cycling to warm up my knee. Then I work with German (recuperator) in the gym, stretcher, I work in the infirmary … Then I meet Igor (Readaptor) and we do some cycling sometimes, sometimes not, and we go out to the field, where we do various exercises. Some days race, other days with the ball. I go out to the field every day and we do a lot of exercises with the ball. It is an important step for me, in the end we are footballers and what we want is to be with the ball. And in these weeks I am getting it ”, he explains.

Azkona, In addition to taking care of the medical and physical chapter, he also makes an effort in the mental to cope with the situation. “I try to be well psychologically and in that my parents have helped me a lot, my brothers who have been on top of me, my gang … Many people that you see are there. You say 'that's it'. And above the situation of Covid-19 and this has happened to me. It is an operation and luckily it went well. I don't see it as a problem. In the end, in football, and especially in women's football, you expose yourself to that. So I've had that philosophy, ”he says from the dressing room.

The rojiblanca, however, confesses that “I have had my moments, sometimes you have to leave work a little for a few weeks and give your knee a little calm. But I think I've gotten along well, then I also try to do things in the afternoons, study … It's being distracted so as not to be turning my knee all the time ”.

Athletic's '16' points out that “when you are injured, you isolate yourself a bit from the team. You see that he goes to a gym or to a field and that you go to another, you go with the physio or the retrainer. You are not with them. I remember the first game when I got home and said 'there it stings a bit'. You see the field, the games and they are difficult moments. Also, in this situation we don't have changing rooms, we don't eat together or have dinners … And that's what I miss the most, those moments with the partners ”.

Azkona He highlights that on this path he is traveling “I have learned a lot. To know my body, myself, I have met the people of Lezama … Because I had not had injuries before and I have had the opportunity to get to know better the physios, doctors … Situations that I had not experienced before. In that sense I am also happy ”.