Vertonghen's Concussion

Lads

Some really interesting quotes I saw on twitter from Jan () about the concussion he received in the 2019 CL SF against Ajax and how it affected him. It was pretty horrible to watch and I remember it being a big story at the time because he was allowed back on the pitch, and now these comments from Jan make it a pretty sad story



"Lots of people don't know it but I suffered a lot from that hit. dizziness and headaches. This is now the first time I tell about it. I should not have continued playing, it affected me in total for 9 months and that's why I couldn't bring on the field what I wanted to. I just didn't know what to do. It was game after game and training after training. Every time there was a new impact. Then the lockdown came and I was able to rest for two months, after that it was a lot better."

On the incident when he appeared to be close to tears after Mourinho took him off against Southampton in the FA Cup:

"Everybody thought I was angry at Mourinho but at that moment I just couldn't go on anymore. I had only one year of contract left, so I had to play. But when I played, I played badly. Not a lot of people knew about it [his continued issues with the head collision], that was my choice, it's not a reproach to anyone."

On Mourinho - "I still hear from him from time to time and the fact I got benched had nothing to do with him. I was in period I could not bring what I should have. I even thought he played me a lot compared to how I performed. Mourinho is of course a very prominent figure, both in the positive and the negative sense. If you win, you can ask him everything. If you lose, you have a problem. He is super close with his players, who actually are his soldiers. He can really stand above them and make you feel small, but if you win and fight for him, then he is really there for you."



This makes a lot of sense, Jan's bad form was immediately obvious at the start of 19/20 season (Poch wasn't even playing him because he was presumably looking so shakey in training) and this concussion happened right at the end of the 18/19 season. I think we all are aware of the fact that his form in his final year made him effectively unplayable but most of us (myself included) chalked that up as a very rapid and sudden decline due to his age over the summer. Hearing that Jan was affected by this so heavily, to the point where it maybe even ended his spurs career, is really sad