Blind: “Football is important, but it is not the most important thing”

The footballer of Ajax, Daley Blind, than collapsed last Tuesday in a friendly match in Amsterdam against Hertha Berlin, has recognized that the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) that he has implanted has changed his way of seeing life.

“It's something that I always carry with me, it's there and I don't forget it, it makes me see things differently. Soccer is important, but it is not the most important thing. There are things in life beyond football, “the footballer told” De Telegraaf “, the most widely read paid newspaper in the Netherlands. The interview was done last week, during Ajax's preseason in Austria, but the player gave the go-ahead for it to be published this Thursday, the newspaper explained.

Blind, 30, has an ICD for a heart problem that was detected late last year, after he fell to the grass during a Champions League match against Valencia. Last Tuesday, the footballer collapsed again in the 79th minute, when he collapsed for no apparent reason. He was able to leave the pitch on his own feet and, as his coach Erik ten Hag explained, his built-in ICD “went off.”

However, the player has been removed from group training and is undergoing medical examinations to study the specific reasons for the incident. “Life goes on. You go through a setback and you bear it. Lessons are also drawn for the future. This has been a wake-up call and you have to listen to your body,” he explained in reference to the fainting he suffered in the match against Valencia .

“If I'm okay, I'll play. Otherwise, I will follow the instructions of the medical staff. In the past I have been stubborn, but I will stop being so, “he said. Blind was trained in the Ajax quarry and signed in the 2014/15 season for Manchester United, in which he played four seasons. He returned to the Amsterdam team in the summer of 2018, in which he has maintained regularity.

“After so many years in the field, it can become routine. Now I realize how happy I can be on the grass, regardless of what level I play.“, he indicated.