Eden Hazard believes the Covid-19 pandemic left him unable to fully recover from an ankle injury which turned his time with Real Madrid into a nightmare.
The Belgian was seen as one of the best players on the planet when Madrid agreed to pay up to €150m to sign him from Chelsea in 2019, shelling out that sum even though the 28-year-old had entered the last 12 months of his contract at Stamford Bridge.
Expected to play a starring role at the Santiago Bernabeu, Hazard's time in Madrid could hardly have gone worse. He suffered an ankle injury just three months after joining the club and would continue to battle fitness problems until he was released from his contract last summer, at which point Hazard made the decision to retire at the age of 32.
Speaking to former Chelsea teammate John Obi Mikel on , Hazard claimed the pandemic robbed him of the chance to fully heal from the initial injury.
«I think I was a bit unlucky with that period with Covid, because if you want to know the real story, I went to Dallas to do the surgery on my ankle then I came back to Madrid and it was Covid,» he began. «I had two to two-and-a-half months of Covid, me at home alone, no physio to do the rehab. I did my rehab alone. If I had to choose one thing to change I should have said to the doctor, 'Bring a physio, I need a good rehab'. I have to do [it] because I want to play at the highest level.
»And then when the Covid finished, we came back on the pitch, I pushed my body like crazy but my ankle was not the same and then I break everything the season after and then you know the story.
«If you want me to change one thing it's call the physio, 'Come home, I know it's Covid but please come home, I need rehab'. And things could be different at that
Read on 90min.com