Former Real Madrid star Raphael Varane has revealed that he played two of the most crucial games of his career with concussion, although he was not aware before the game started. Increasingly concussion checks are becoming common place in football, but Varane has said the incidents occurred long in advance of the games he suffered in.
One of the key games he should have missed was against Manchester City, in the Champions League Round of 16 clash with Real Madrid in 2020. He revealed to L’Equipe that before the match he felt a foggy sensation, as carried by MD.
“During that game I had a concussion. I felt it from the warm-up and I told myself: ‘wake up’. I almost wanted to slap myself. During the match, my first three balls were technically clean, but I was too slow. I couldn’t concentrate, I was like a spectator. The match went badly for me and, in retrospect, I realised that it was related to the shock I had suffered.”
It was not a good performance from Varane, and Real Madrid went down 2-1, exiting the competition. Both of the games the Manchester United defender mentioned were during his time at Real Madrid.
“I have never missed these types of important matches, on the contrary, they are generally the ones in which I can be more focused. At first I took the elimination personally, even though collectively we weren’t having a good day. I questioned myself a lot and finally realised that these mistakes had not fallen from the sky.”
“During a league match against Getafe, I received a ball on the head from a corner and had to leave the field. I followed a five-day recovery protocol without much effort. Then we had a few days off and I remember feeling intensely tired, but I thought it was related to the usual end-of-season decompression.”
Varane also suffered similarly six years prior, when Germany beat France in Brazil in 2014.
“I have had several concussions. If we look back at three of the worst games of my career, there are at least two in which I had suffered a concussion a few days before: against Germany in the quarterfinals of the 2014 World Cup and with Real Madrid against Manchester City in the round of 16 of the 2020 Champions League.”
“If someone had talked to me at that moment I don’t even know if I would have been able to respond. I don’t remember the game after this shock. I felt eye fatigue. Looking back, I wonder: if I had known it was a concussion, would I have said, even if that meant not playing this match? I don’t even know if there were tests ten years ago. How can I measure at that moment my ability to play or not against Germany in the quarterfinals? You can’t blame the doctors either, it’s a difficult situation. little complicated. In 10 years, I never wanted to talk about it because it can sound like an excuse and I never wanted it to seem like that, because it’s not.”
In the United Kingdom there has been increased awareness and attention surrounding concussion protocols and the potential adverse outcomes for footballers later in life with regard to Alzheimer’s Disease. However in Spain this has been a less present discourse, and there is still no concussion substitution in football as a whole.
