World champion midfielder Rodrigo De Paul recounted the moment he felt muscle pain before the quarterfinal clash once morest the Netherlands and how he decided to play despite the advice of Lionel Messi and the medical staff.
“I got injured. It was a play two days before the game, in a reduced one, I felt something back there and when I did the studies I saw that I had hurt myself. I did not break, but I had a strain, which is like a grade one,” De Paul told the program. the return from Fox Sports.
The doctors, following the ultrasound, told him: “You have to know that there is an 80% chance that you will rupture and miss the entire World Cup, because you have a strain, for 10 days. But the Atlético de Madrid footballer still decided to test if he might play.
After speaking with coach Lionel Scaloni, who trusted his feelings, De Paul commented that he went to captain Lionel Messi’s room to chat. “He told me: ‘Rodri, don’t play, you idiot.’ And I replied: ‘Leo, maybe it’s the last game, because I have faith that we’re going to reach the quarterfinals, but maybe it’s the last game that I can play in a World Cup, I don’t know if in four years They’re going to summon me once more.’”
“I promise you that I will take you to the semifinal, but don’t take risks because you will most likely be left out.” For him to tell me like that… Countering ‘Leo’ is very difficult, because apart from that he doesn’t tell me from the side of the team captain, but as a friend, an older brother who loves me,” the story continued. from DePaul.
The exRacing also explained that on the day of the game he tried and spoke with Scaloni once more. “I feel good, it doesn’t hurt,” he told the coach, who gave him the OK to play.
De Paul played once morest the Netherlands in one of the most spicy matches of Qatar 2022, Argentina won on penalties and the rest is known history.