The miracle of Omar Elabdellaoui arrived late to play at the Camp Nou

Galatasaray did not register him in the 2021-22 Europa League. Neither in August 2021 nor in January 2022. Logical. No one could believe that he would be available for the round of 16. Moreover, there were serious doubts that he could play football again, a lesser evil after what happened to him on New Year’s Eve 2020, when he was declared clinically blind. Omar Elabdellaoui, a 30-year-old Norwegian right back, has worked the miracle with perseverance, patience and medical wisdom. He not only recovered his sight after eleven operations, but in February he successfully reappeared in the Turkish league. The incredible story of overcoming him deserved the prize of playing at the Camp Nou this Thursday against Barça with the special dark glasses with which he is forced to compete. But you can’t ask for everything. Whatever happens, he has already won. He will travel with the team when he enters the list, as a reward and as an example of struggle for his teammates.

the lenses of Omar They are not new to football. At Barça he played like this Edgar Davids in the 2003-04 season due to glaucoma that affected his optic nerves and could cause generalized vision loss. It was not a trifle. It was a solution of the doctors to prevent. But the defense of the Turkish team was much more traumatic.

Elabdellaoui He lost his vision on December 31, 2020, on New Year’s Eve due to an accident typical of the celebrations: fireworks exploded in his face. On February 21, 2022, she reappeared more than thirteen months later after having gone through the operating room eleven times. A true miracle.

The Norwegian international, born in Oslo, was in the garden of his house preparing to celebrate the new year with friends and family, including his three children. She had several fireworks ready to be set off when one of them prematurely went off too close to her face.

“I can’t see, I can’t see!” he yelled Omar a friend when he felt the effects of gunpowder and metal on his skin and in his eyes. His jacket was also on fire. his wife, Anne, ran to put out the flames, but could do little. An ambulance arrived within minutes, but it took a long time to reach the hospital because of the traffic.

“I thought I had something in my eye, but then I felt my face burn and everything was black. Everything was dark, I didn’t know if it was day or night,” he explained in ‘The Guardian’ time later, remembering his brother’s disconsolate crying when he couldn’t recognize him when he arrived at the hospital because of how his face had turned out. Unfortunately, an image of his burned face captured in the ambulance by some insensitive being in those tense minutes ran through social networks.

As the first few hours passed, he was declared clinically blind. Despite the unconditional support of his colleagues from the Galatasaray and the love of his relatives, the side, who passed through the quarry of the Manchester City before playing in the Feyenoord and Olympiakosacknowledged that “I really had no control over the first few days.”

He soon came to terms with his situation and began to fight back. He never gave up. He was successfully operated on Turkey and in United States. Up to eleven interventions. And, little by little, she achieved the miracle. First he saved an eye that had been considered lost thanks to a rigorous and disciplined recovery. He progressively recovered his vision, physically worked alone and the day came, in mid-January, when the doctor Yener, from Galatasaray, allowed him to join the group, but equipped with special glasses and a contact lens. He has to use eye drops every half hour, except when he is on the field “Everything was very emotional, all the players cried and hugged each other,” explained the doctor.

Subsequently, he passed the tests to be able to play a match without any problem, first a friendly and then, with the technical OK of a Domènec Torrent satisfied with his physical and sporting level, an official one.

And 13 months later he reappeared through the front door: he started in the two consecutive victories against Goztepe (2-3) and the Rizespor (4-2) that gave air to a Galatasaray in crisis. Last Saturday he stayed on the bench in the defeat against Konyaspor and entered in the 59th minute with 2-0 against.

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