Gerard Deulofeu is continuing to work hard to return to 100% after the injury that kept him off the pitch for over a year. He was recently a guest on the channel Twitch Jijantes Football Clubwhere he spoke about his last year and a half: “Not being able to play football the last two seasons is one of the things that hurt me the most. I had to deal with the injury first, but the other problem was the slowed down progress due to the fluid in my knees, which continued to cause inflammation. I couldn’t run until I was fully recovered. Without the closeness of the people around me and the way I’ve organized my life in the last 5 or 6 years, I wouldn’t have gotten out of it.” He continues talking about his recovery from the injury: “After the first few months of recovery, you think there’s not much left, but then you realize that’s not the case.”
He continues explaining the choice to freeze his contract with Udinese
“The club has been waiting for me for over a year and a half, and I felt like making a gesture towards them. My contract expires in 2026, I renewed it last year. I decided to listen to my body, so as to take the time necessary to get back to 100%. For me it is essential to know that there is a club waiting for me, given that they know how I work, and they know my trainers. They know that if I manage to return to playing football, my career will still be long. At the beginning of 2024, I had to undergo treatment that led to slow but gradual progress. They are small steps that have allowed me to return to training on the pitch. Today at the fourth session I was able to run: the joint did not bother me. I think that from now on the recovery will start to accelerate, as I feel that the knee responds well to the stimuli to which it is subjected”.
The media attention has been heavy for the player, who says:
“I know that the press, the management, the environment want to have you in the team, because your presence counts, but out of necessity I had to step away because my head could no longer stand that 50 people, who are the ones you find in the locker room every day, ask you what’s happening, how long it is, and how the progress is going. It was unbearable, I couldn’t take it anymore. The remedy was to stay at home with my wife and children, surrounded by my friends who know exactly how I am and if there is any progress I am the one to tell them. It was the opportunity to spend more time with my family and get out of that bubble that without wanting to psychologically hurts you, because mentally you just want a bit of peace”. His words reported by TuttoUdinese.it