Modric, the memory of 2015, an injury and an express trip to see the "miracle doctor"
«I still remember 2015, when I was injured before the games against Atlético and Juventus in the Champions League.. I didn't want it to happen to me again.”. In the Etihad Stadium press room, Luka Modric, the voice of Real Madrid in the run-up to the semifinals against Manchester City, reflected on his physical problems and the importance they have for the destiny of the white team. The Croatian missed the decisive stretch of the 2014/15 Champions League and Madrid ended up losing in the semifinals against Juventus.
For this reason, when the midfielder was injured against Girona on April 25, two weeks before the first leg against City, all the alarms went off at the Bernabéu. According to Madrid, he suffered “a tear in the hamstring muscle of his left leg.”. That is, about three weeks off. Goodbye to the tie against the English.
At that moment, Modric had it clear. had to risk. That same weekend he traveled to Belgrade and visited “the miracle doctor”, as the doctor Marijana Kovacevic is known, who had treated Novak Djokovic before the last Australian Open.. The Serbian, who had touched the first Grand Slam of the year, had several sessions with Kovacevic and ended up winning the title in Melbourne.
“A Placenta Cream”
Kovacevic has been working with elite athletes since the mid-2000s, and began to become known thanks to Liverpool, whose squad regularly required his services.. “He uses a placenta cream that he applies with a machine that creates pressure waves. Many players have gone through his clinic and I think it is safe, “explained Rafa Benítez, Anfield team coach, in 2009.
According to the doctor's website, she achieves a “regeneration of damaged muscle tissue with a manual massage with a roller and original gel made up of different natural substances, through the use of a high-frequency flow of electricity on the damaged tissue”, and she emphasizes, before the critical voices about his methods: «After the therapy, the results of the doping tests are negative for the presence of illegal substances in blood and urine».
Kovacevic warns that “the muscle tissue is completely regenerated after seven days and the patient is ready for regular training”. The treatment seems to have worked for Modric, who under the supervision of the Madrid medical team placed himself in the hands of the doctor and was available for the Copa del Rey final against Osasuna, last Saturday, eleven days after his injury.. «I have tried to do something different on the advice of some friends and I have returned sooner than I thought. The important thing is that I feel good. I wanted to be and here I am, “he explained yesterday before the press.
At 37, who will be 38 in September, Modric aspires to his sixth European Cup. He will arrive at the Etihad after having played 87 minutes in the first leg and a half hour against Getafe. Nothing and no one will take him out of Carlo Ancelotti's starting eleven, in which he has been indisputable during all the qualifying rounds of the last two years. He has not lost a match in the final round of the Champions League since 2018, when Zidane booked him in the round of 16 against PSG after the favorable 3-1 first leg. The last time he missed due to injury was in 2015, his cursed year. A knee injury kept him out of the quarter-final second leg against Atlético and the semifinals against Juve. It has never happened again. With him, Madrid can breathe.