Gavi’s confessions about his 335 days until playing again

Sunday, October 20, 2024. Minute 63 of Barça-Sevilla at Montjuïc. Gavi He went down to the bench to warm up and the stands were disappearing. The cheering was small what could be heard shortly after, when in the 83rd minute the Andalusian midfielder came on in relief. Peterwho puts the culé captain’s armband on him. 335 days have passed since their last match, the Spain-Georgia qualifier for the Euro Cup, played on November 19, 2023. Gavi He was injured in the 25th minute of Sunday’s unfortunate game in Valladolid, with tears as he left his place on the field. Oihan Sancet They expected terrible news, soon confirmed: complete rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee with involvement of the external meniscus. In ‘The Return’documentary work available at Barça One in its first part, Gavi provides details “in first person on the way back to the playing fields”, as the production promotion describes. Injury, preoperative, intervention, postoperative and the intermediate phases until the big day of return and the day Gavi is in the head, but I won’t say. All, just a few dates from Real Madrid-Barça.

“When it happens to you, you know it,” he stated sincerely. Gavi remembered that Xavi Hernandezthen his coach at Barça, encouraged him with his personal experience. “He told me he had a serious injury and came back better than ever.” “I felt strange, but supported by the whole team,” Gavi recalled. “I will be the same, whatever happens and whatever injury I have,” he said to himself.

Upon review, the need to operate became official. “The night before I was so nervous, I couldn’t sleep.” This happened 10 days after being wounded, “eternal days.” “I wanted to have the operation now, I thought I would be able to play sooner, because I didn’t feel any pain, my leg just fell asleep.” The Doctor Ricard Pruna He got her out of that mistake. “If a knee injury is operated on with pain or blood in the joint, the recovery is more expensive and may have more complications. Waiting 10 or 12 days will benefit the final result,” he told him.

Afterward, Gavi recalled “excruciating pain after surgery.” “I wanted to go home on the second day but I couldn’t stay there for even two hours, I couldn’t take it and I went back to the hospital. The first month was very difficult, at home, I didn’t want to see anyone. The temptation to think of the end of the journey is an enemy. It is the turn of rehabilitation, of physiotherapists and recoverers, in stages and always with small intermediate goals: walking with crutches, then without them, exercising in water, having degrees in genuflection … “Broken to the end. The knee is the most important thing to me. I had a bad time. A little more, a little more… until now, that my knee is almost the same as before,” Gavi revealed, satisfied and above all, thankful. “The first weeks after the operation I was like a ‘zombie’. Thank you for Pablo Merinothe physio, I felt good, I owe everything to him.” Merino took advantage of the first half of the year. “All day together, morning, afternoon and evening at the Ciutat Esportiva.” In the second stage, the readapters It’s Alvarez and Chechu Perez“the ‘fucking masters’, ‘top’ for me and the team.” One is the son of Diegoformer midfielder for the legendary Real Sociedad, League champion in the 80s, one is the son of Rojo, a Barça striker in the 80s combines the “oases” of walks once a week on the beach or in the mountains “to not spend the day talk about when you’ll play again.” “I loved working in the pool. Go somewhere different than usual. “I had a great time,” he said. Or bodybuilding, with weights, which “I’ve never done” like this “and it’s a pleasure.”

Joining Barça in Paris to face PSG is, once again, “feeling part of the team” and, above all, touching the ball again “that I never touched because of compliance.” “I didn’t do it, even at home, I’m always careful,” he insisted. For this reason, when he was able to train with a ball at the Ciutat Esportiva, he “became a child again, as if he were five years old and in the school yard.” Or when Doctor Pruna gave him permission to work with the group “at Johan Cruyff” 230 days later. “I don’t believe you,” he replied. Gavi just failed at one thing, an omen. “Obviously, I’m not going to be the same the first day I play,” he said. In his first action in Barça-Sevilla he went to greedy contention for a split ball. The usual Gavi.