Sergio Ramos explains why Liverpool lost the Champions League final; ‘it wasn’t me’
A: Liverpool lost the Champion’s League final with Real Madrid because Mohammed Salah injured himself and Loris Karius is useless. B: Liverpool lost the Champions League final because Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos chucked Salah to the ground with a judo-style throw and collided with Karius’s face, causing the Egyptian to leave the field of play and the goalkeeper to lose his bearings and let in two soft goals.
Says Ramos to AS: “Bloody hell, they have given this Salah thing a lot of attention. I didn’t want to speak because everything is magnified.”
So he speaks and everything is magnified.
“I see the play well, he grabs my arm first and I fell to the other side, the injury happened to the other arm and they said that I gave him a judo hold,” says Ramos, getting in the sympathetic back story.
“After that the goalkeeper said I dazed him with a clash,” he adds. Karius went to Massachusetts General Hospital in the USA – a place where Liverpool owner J Henry has co-chaired a fund-raising campaign. The hospital says Karius most likely suffered concussion during the match. His two clangers that cost Liverpool two goals in a 3-1 defeat were the result of a brain injury? He’s not rubbish. He’s dazed and confused.
Ramos continues: “I spoke with Salah through messages, he was quite good. He could have played if he got an injection for the second half, I have done it sometimes but when Ramos does something like this, it sticks a little bit more. I don’t know if it is because you are at Madrid for so long and win for so long that people look at it a different way.”
Ramos talks about himself in the third person. Karius, if the medics are to be believed, likely sees both of them at once. Salah has had surgery for his injured shoulder. He might not play for Egypt in the World Cup.
The hospital that saw Karius has issued a statement:
We have received numerous calls today regarding the health status of Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius. With Mr. Karius’s permission, we are providing information about his medical situation in an effort to prevent, where possible, the dissemination of incomplete or erroneous information.
On May 31, 2018 Mr. Karius underwent a comprehensive examination by Dr. Ross Zafonte and Dr. Lenore Herget in Boston at Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.
After carefully reviewing game film and integrating a detailed history – including his reported present and immediate post-contact subjective symptoms – physical examination and objective metrics, we have concluded that Mr. Karius sustained a concussion during the match May 26, 2018.
At the time of our evaluation, Mr. Karius’s principal residual symptoms and objective signs suggested that visual spatial dysfunction existed and likely occurred immediately following the event. Additional symptomatic and objectively noted areas of dysfunction also persisted. It could be possible that such deficits would affect performance.
We also note that Mr. Karius has reported significant and steady improvement since the concussive event, and we expect him to make a full recovery based on the results of the examination. We expect that with treatment and by following prescribed activity protocols he will continue to improve. We have encouraged vigilance and an emphasis on safety in his eventual return to full activity.
This is the only comment we will be making in relation to this matter. All future media inquiries should be directed to the Liverpool FC Press Office.
Dr. Ross Zafonte
Senior VP of Medical Affairs, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Massachusetts General Hospital
Not all that conclusive, then.
The NHS tells you what to do if you’ve experienced concussion:
When to go to hospital
Go to your nearest accident and emergency (A&E) department if you’ve injured your head and have:woken up after being knocked out
problems with your memory
a headache that doesn’t go away
been vomiting since the injury
changes in your behaviour, such as becoming more irritable
had an operation on your brain in the past or are taking blood-thinners (like warfarin)
been drinking alcohol or taking recreational drugs
Concussion is a serious thing.
Former Northwestern goalkeeper Anna Cassell has described why she retired from football after multiple head injuries:
Unfortunately, the harm of these concussions extend beyond the field. I suffered severe headaches, bouts of anxiety and depression, and balance problems, which all contributed to my falling weeks behind in my pre-med studies. As I think about this sad trend, I am struck by two things. The first is the lack of convincing research regarding concussion prevention. … I am also bothered by the lack of consequences for the opposing players who commit fouls that cause concussions. While referees are instructed to “protect the goalkeeper,” neither of the players who gave me my concussions had any sort of meaningful consequences, despite the fact that both were flagrant fouls where neither of them made any contact with the ball. While their team merely lost possession of the ball, I was losing my soccer career.
And then there’s the damage caused by repeatedly heading the ball…
Posted: 5th, June 2018 | In: Liverpool, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
