Crystal Palace’s promising midfielder Eberechi Eze’s season — and a potential call-up for Euro 2020 — came to an end when he ruptured his Achilles’ tendon in training.
Such was the horror and seriousness of Eze’s freak injury that teammate Andros Townsend revealed the Palace players were in tears, adding that the ‘shock on the 22-year-old’s face still haunts him at night’.
“He fell to the floor,” Townsend told talkSPORT. “He thought somebody kicked him, we all thought somebody kicked him because it sounded like that, as he’s turned around and realised nobody was around him, the shock started to set in as you know what it is.
“The shock in his face when he ruptured his Achilles, it haunts me when I go to sleep at night thinking about this young player who’s probably my closest mate at the club since he’s joined, we’ve really helped each other, for him to have such a serious injury is really sad.
“As soon as he got in the dressing room and turned on his phone there was a message from England to say he was in the provisional squad. That compounded his misery and a lot of us were in tears. It was a sad day.”
In the above video I explain the injury, his return-to-play timeline, the key hurdles to clear in the physio room, and if he can get back to his pre-injury levels to continue his ascent.
Dr Rajpal Brar, DPT, is a physiotherapist, movement expert, fitness trainer, and mindfulness coach. He runs the LA-based wellness and athletic development/performance clinic 3CB Performance, and you can subscribe to his Youtube channel (which posts analyses of Lionel Messi and more) by going here.