In 2019 when Eden Hazard made the much talked about move from Chelsea to Real Madrid, no one would have believed if it was said then that two years down the line, the Belgian star would be a shadow of himself.
The Real Madrid attacker is now set to be away from the pitch for at least about 4-6 weeks after his recent injury woe, coming barely three days after returning from a long time on the sidelines.
In his two years career at Madrid, the former Lille star has missed 50 out of a possible 86 games and has been injured on 11 different occasions. The major problem has been with his muscle which is an internal problem. This is a cause of big worry for the player and management.
One begins to wonder where all could have gone wrong. Is it his body failing? Is it the medical team at Madrid not getting it right? Remember, Gareth Bale, who is currently on loan at Tottenham has also faced similar recurrent spells on the treatment table at the capital club just like Hazard. The Welshman managed just 171 appearances for the Galatico between 2013 and 2020 before he joined his former club on loan last summer.
Football has seen a handful of great potentials forced into premature and unceremonial retirements; the likes of Marco Van Basten, Abou Diaby, Dean Ashton, Owen Hargreaves, Michael Johnson and a host of other exciting players whose careers were cut short due to recurring injuries.
The questions begging for answers are, how a player who made about 245 appearances for Chelsea in a successful 7-year stint in England has suddenly become a shadow of what was expected of him. Is this age telling on him? Or, is it a matter of the Madrid medical team not getting something right, given that there has been a precedence with Gareth Bale's situation?
Should the World Cup bronze medalist call it quit?
Let me know what you think.
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