Atletico Madrid: Memphis Depay injury issues could be down to dispute with personal trainer

By Ruairidh Barlow - 30 October 2023, 13:30

Atletico Madrid will be delighted with the form of Alvaro Morata, who netted his 10th goal of the season against Alaves on Sunday night, further affirming his brilliant start to the season. It’s driving Los Colchoneros to results, but also covering up the absence of their other star striker.

Memphis Depay has not been available for over a month now, and the reality is that he has barely been available all season. While he has scored twice in his four appearances, Diego Simeone has only been able to use him for 139 minutes this season, the last of which was an eight-minute cameo against Real Madrid. He has missed the other 9 of their 13 games.

The 29-year-old has been nursing muscle injuries during that period, and Kiko Narvaez has revealed on Cadena SER that his injury issues could be down to work he was doing with his personal trainer.

According to Narvaez, there have been disagreements between his personal physical trainer (now no longer employed) and the club over what was causing his injuries. His personal trainer believed it was due to explosive movements, while the club were of the opinion it was down to his thigh muscles, and preferred that he worked in a different manner.

🚨🎙️| Kiko Narváez on Memphis Depay:

“There were disagreements between his personal physical trainer, who he no longer has, and the club.

The former believed that his injuries were due to explosiveness, specific to rapid movements, while the club thought that the posterior part… pic.twitter.com/KiB7OKc02J

— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) October 30, 2023

There was no communication between the two, and Memphis was doing work with his personal trainer in the morning, and work with Atletico in the afternoon.

This is an unusual situation, but may in part explain not only his slow return for Atletico at the start of the season, but also a series of chronic injuries. While the Dutchman suffered two anterior cruciate ligament injuries earlier in his career, at Barcelona too he was plagued by muscle problems. Last season he was in and out for Diego Simeone, rarely stringing together starts.