After almost eight months and a lingering groin injury, Patrik Schick played a football match again. The Leverkusen gunner came on for the last half hour of Thursday’s Europa League match against Karabakh, at which time Bayer was already leading 5:1.
The fans greeted him with thunderous applause and the Czech representative told reporters that he was full of emotions and still has a long way to go.
“It was very emotional. I felt like I scored a goal. I’ve been working on this for so long,” Schick described. He waited 231 days for a sharp match. He started for the last time at the beginning of March, then in June he underwent an operation on the adductor on his leg at a clinic in Berlin. The author of 18 national team goals has not played for the national team since last September.
Schick ran onto the pitch in the 62nd minute. His place was left to Victor Boniface. Six minutes later, Adam Hložek also arrived, and at the end, with the catching goalkeeper Matěj Kovář, they celebrated their third win in the third round of the European League.
“It wasn’t easy. I often want to score a goal in a few minutes, this time I’ve been trying to score for almost a year. It wasn’t the best day of my life, but it was certainly special,” said the 27-year-old Schick.
“The match is not like training. I still have a long way to go. But first I want to enjoy this evening and the return,” he added.
“He’s been waiting for this for a really long time. It’s good for his soul and body,” stated the club’s sporting director Simon Rolfes.
And the club was waiting for it too, thanks to which the opponents’ defenders have something to fear. The attack monster is back.
