De Paul told the whole truth about his injury at the World Cup in Qatar: Messi’s advice that he did not want to listen to, Tini’s phrase that pushed him to continue playing

Rodrigo DePaul broke the silence on one of the issues that generated the most concern and mystery in the middle of the Qatar World Cup 2022, in the run-up to the quarterfinal duel against the Netherlands. The midfielder of the Selection whitewashed that two days before the clash with the Dutch he suffered a muscle injury and that the indication of the medical staff was not to risk his physique, since it could aggravate the condition and miss the rest of the competition.

“I was injured, when I did the studies I saw that I had hurt myself. I didn’t break, but it was a grade one injury.”was the specific response of the Atlético de Madrid player to the journalist Joaquin Pollo Álvarez on your show the return of Fox Sports. The episode De Paul refers to occurred at a practice: “It was in a play two days before the game, in a reduced, in the last play of training. I feel something back there (by the back of the leg). I never hurt myself, I never tore any muscle,” she added.

After the incident, the 28-year-old midfielder, key in the scaffolding of Lionel Scaloni’s team, had to speak with the technical director before going to the office and a dialogue took place that demonstrates the desire to play at all costs that the former had Racing. “When he went in with the doctor, he told me: ‘Let’s do an ultrasound.’ There they see that the muscle had something. Then he tells me: ‘We’ll do an MRI first thing tomorrow morning.’ I tell him: ‘Resonance not because something is going to come out’. If they saw me injured in the resonance they discarded me. With the ultrasound half that handled it. I said, ‘I’m going to have an ultrasound tomorrow morning early.’ ‘Well, come on,’ he tells me.

The result of the ultrasound was not as expected. “You have ten days”I confirm Daniel Martinez, doctor of the selected. The match against the Netherlands for a place in the World Cup semifinal was in 48 hours. “I know how you are, hard-headed you’re going to want to play, but you have to know that there is an 80% chance that you break and miss the entire World Cup, because you have a strain, something the muscle has”, continued the specialist. What followed was a special request to Scaloni, who was approached to make a comment about his ailment: “The only thing I ask of you, so that a broken phone is not generated, is that you let me decide. If I’m to play or not. I swear, if I’m not here I’ll tell you the truth. He tells me: ‘Stay calm that you decide if you are or not’ ”.

Then came the leak of the news: De Paul had been injured and his presence in the World Cup was at risk. “There was a riot there, it is because very few inside know about it so that it can leak out. I had to do races, slowly. And when I do the first one it was a pain… I swear. I was very worried. I felt that I was going to lose what was left of the World Cup”Rodrigo continued. That night he went to the room of Lionel Messi and there was a particular dialogue: “He told me: ‘Rodri, don’t play stupid.’ And I tell him: ‘Leo could be the last game in a World Cup because I have faith that we’re going to reach the semifinals, but I don’t know if they’re going to call me up again.’ He tells me: ‘I promise you that I’ll help you reach the semifinal, but don’t risk it because you’ll most likely be left out.’ And for him to tell me so… Countering Leo is very difficult, he didn’t tell me not as the team captain, but as a friend, an older brother.”.

After the talk with Messi, De Paul sought a word of encouragement from his closest circle. But it wasn’t his mom or his dad, who were already too worried about the situation. The soccer player called his girlfriend, Tini Stoesselwhich ended up being key to the final decision of the number 7 of the Scaloneta. “She was the only person who did not give me an opinion from the football side, that took a bit of pressure off me, of responsibility, because he let me decide. She told me: “I am going to support you, I decided with my heart, that you will not regret it”. The next day I woke up and said that I was going to play, ”she declared.

With the firm decision, the OK from the coach was still missing. Despite the pain in his leg that did not allow him to be one hundred percent and the latent risk of tearing, De Paul told Scaloni that he was fit: “At one point I clicked and tried. I ran three strong times and nothing happened to me. I arrived at noon and the technician says to me: ‘How are you?’ I tell him ‘fine’. And it hurt me. He says to me: ‘What? Was it a miracle?’ ‘No, Leo, it doesn’t hurt.’ He tells me: ‘Forgive me that I have to talk to you like that, but if I have to take you off the team I have to kill myself.’ I tell him: ‘I feel good’. He tells me: ‘Well, you’re going to play’. In the afternoon it hurt but nothing happened to me. It was those two days… At night when I was going to bed, the uncertainty that you will miss all that remains of the World Cup, you go to bed with anguish, crying, waiting for a miracle that you know will not happen. When a doctor tells you ‘there is an 80 percent chance that you will break…’. But well, this to me a person outside of football, my partner had told me something that helped. I was not going to regret it, luckily the bad thing did not happen, being left out. I was going to regret it more if I didn’t risk it”, ended. And the miracle happened…

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