Ansu Fati has been fighting relentlessly against adversity for half a year. What seemed to be a maximum four-month injury (a tear of the internal meniscus in the left knee that he suffered on November 7 of last year) is on the way to six and, what is worse, without yet having a date accurate back. The recovery from his injury started on the wrong foot from the first day: he had to be admitted for five days in the postoperative period, after being operated on by surgeon Ramon Cugat at the Quirón Clinic. This type of intervention takes in principle about 48 hours to be discharged from the hospital.
However, things got worse in the following weeks: the knee became systematically inflamed and the pain did not subside. After lengthening in time and verifying that physical therapy was not progressing adequately, it was decided to intervene again. As reported by TV3, in early January he underwent a new arthroscopy, supervised by Cugat. After this second operation, the complications continued to accumulate, with an infection in the suture included, further lengthening his recovery and putting the young forward at a real crossroads: his dream of playing this season for Barcelona, as well as participating at the Euro and the Olympics this summer.
Once it was assumed that the season was totally lost, Fati's roadmap changed completely, setting his sights on the next preseason. Hence, after noting that when he increased workloads he continued to have problems with his left knee, it was decided, in agreement with the club's medical services, perform a third arthroscopy to check the state of the suture and clean the meniscus, AS has learned.
This third operation was done again without informing and secretly, like the second, and under the supervision once again of Cugat at the Quirón Clinic. The objective of this last operation was to have a more exact idea of the state of the knee, without the urgencies of recovering this season and with an eye to July.
Coinciding with the dates of the third operation, Fati took the opportunity to send an intense and sincere message through Instagram, which now makes much more sense after learning about this new setback. He began by recounting his history of injuries, “a few years ago I had a serious injury, a fractured tibia and fibula, being a year without being able to play”, to add that “unfortunately now I have to live a similar situation, which I will face with the same mentality “and to conclude that” football is my life and no matter how many obstacles there may be, I will always have the illusion of continuing to fight for my dreams … “This message was posted on social networks on March 31st.
Seventeen days later Fati was seen in the final of the Copa del Rey with serious problems to be able to celebrate the title with his teammates, needing the help of Junior and Dembélé, who rode him on horseback, to prevent him from jumping. These images were strange at the time, but they are totally understandable now, especially considering that he had undergone surgery three weeks before.
Right now, everything is pending on the sensations of the player in the coming days, when he intensifies his recovery and workloads: a fourth operation is not ruled out if this new therapy does not finish working. But if it is carried out, it would no longer be Cugat but the French surgeon, Bernard Cottet, whom Fati visited in March at his office in Lyon, who would be in charge of the operation.
This third intervention that he underwent at the end of March was, above all, a preventive measure in the desperate attempt to save part of his original meniscus, an essential factor for a long sports career. And is that if a solution is not finally found in the coming weeks, the next step will be a meniscectomy, that is, the removal of the meniscus, a decision that would solve the problem in the short and medium term, but that could have serious long-term consequences. term.