Football news - Kevin De Bruyne admits regret over painkillers, says he was concussed in Champions League final
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Updated 06/10/2021 at 14:40 GMT
Kevin De Bruyne had a disrupted start to the season with Manchester City after suffering damage to his nose and eye socket in the Champions League final and also injuring his ankle at Euro 2020. The 30-year-old, who is set to play in the Nations League semi-finals for Belgium on Thursday, has been reflecting on both injuries and his recovery.
Kevin De Bruyne was injured at Euro 2020
Image credit: Getty Images
Kevin De Bruyne has admitted regret over taking painkilling injections to face Italy in the Euro 2020 quarter-finals, and has also revealed he was concussed during the Champions League final.
De Bruyne was injured at Euro 2020 after a tackle from Joao Palhinha in Belgium's last-16 victory over Portugal.
He then started in the next game against Italy, which Belgium lost 2-1, and says he left the tournament with a "serious ankle injury".
“I came in with an injury to my eye socket [from the Champions League final] and after three matches I left with an even more serious ankle injury,” the Manchester City midfielder told HNL.
I knew immediately that my ankle was bad after that tackle against Portugal. I played against Italy with two injections. If I had known beforehand what my ankle would have been like afterwards, I would not have played football.
The injury meant De Bruyne needed extra time off over the summer and only made his first start for Manchester City on September 15.
He was also recovering from a collision with Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger during the Champions League final in May.
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Kevin De Bruyne was injured in a collision with Antonio Rudiger in the Champions League final
Image credit: Getty Images
De Bruyne suffered damage to his nose and eye socket and says he doesn’t remember a lot from the match.
I have seen the images back. He just wanted to block me, not to cause an injury. For me it was not a red card. I was concussed, so the final is all a blur.
Belgium are set to compete in the Nations League semi-finals this week as they face France on Thursday.
Reflecting on Belgium’s quarter-final exit at Euro 2020, De Bruyne added: “We did everything we could with the Red Devils to be able to play as well as possible at the European Championship, but we couldn't do more than that at the time.
“I think the World Cup in Russia was the best moment to win something with the national team, at the last European Championship we were just not in the best moment of our career with a few key players. In that sense, I was not that disappointed.”
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