José María Giménez He is not a guy who makes excuses. The defender of the
Atlético de Madrid He has learned to take the things of life as they come, obstacles as tests to overcome and grow as an athlete and as a person.
For this reason, the strange season that he has lived this course does not serve to excuse himself for not having had the role expected of him, as the natural heir of Diego Godin. Everything indicates that it will be a starter in
San Mamés after six months when soccer finally returns for the Athletic.
Physical problems have deprived him in these years of being with the team in 64 games since he joined the rojiblanco team in the summer of 2013, of the total of 379 that he could have played. If we add to that another five more that could not play due to sanction, the account rises to 69 shocks of the total. In this course there were several physical problems that he had to overcome and that prevented him from being the bulwark that he had become accustomed to in previous years.
In the current campaign there have been two injuries that the central defender has had to endure. A grade I muscle injury to his right thigh in October in the game against Bayer
Leverkusen, and a muscular edema in the left leg in January, in the Spanish Super Cup played in Arabia
Saudi , when he was just getting ready again.
The Uruguayan recognized a few days ago, in Zero Wave, that when he was back in shape, his colleagues closed the door.
Gimenez acknowledged that after recovering from the last injury, the doors of ownership had been closed to him.
“When I came out in the Super Cup, I was fine several weeks ago, but the teammates were doing well for weeks, they were doing it in a wonderful way. It is normal that I had to wait for my place, when as I had to play and others had to wait. I accepted it and took it as such ”, he said to add that the colleagues were doing it amazing -“ they gave us the pass to the quarterfinals Champions, they made a great match ”, he said.
However, he never lowered his arms because these mountain peaks have been a constant in his career. “Soccer is changing, you have to be prepared to play even if it doesn't touch you,” he said, adding that in the “Athletic everyone thinks of a goal that makes them grow as a team, of being prepared ”.
LEARN FROM THE BAD MOMENTS
The Uruguayan player, a couple of seasons ago, explained that all these adverse physical situations have helped him to be a better teammate and footballer.
The player has a complete gym at home, he has the advice of a physical trainer who has helped him during these years, where every time he has a “quarrel” he airs. In it he has the routines that he has to do but also with motivational phrases like “train in silence and make success make the noise”.
In the program ‘By the T-shirt' of ‘Channel 10’, He recalled in 2019 one of the most worrying campaigns in this regard and that helped him improve. “I spent three months without being able to touch the court. You learn more with defeat than with victory. The injuries that happened to me in the race made me mature faster than the good, than the titles, the victories or the beautiful things. Negative experiences help you improve. I aspire to more, to go further ”, he pointed out in this regard
“Injuries were a difficult part of my life. At those moments is when you see what people are next to you. Like my wife. If it is difficult to have someone next to you who cannot do what they want to do is play soccer … She is pregnant, cold, taking the child to school, without complaining, she told me calmly, rest, recover … She is one of the greatest successes I had in my life, “he added.