The central midfielder was diagnosed with the freak injury during half-time of his first ever appearance in Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium but refused to come off
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Injuries in football matches are common although most are related to muscular pains or knocks to the knee or ankle.
There was an unusual and potentially much more serious injury suffered by Real Mallorca midfielder Dani Rodriguez when he made his first ever appearance at Barcelona ’s Camp Nou stadium.
In December 2019, Rodriguez played as his side crashed to a 5-2 loss at the Catalan giants; aged 31, this was his first season in the top-flight of Spanish football in his entire career.
The central midfielder had been on the books of Deportivo La Coruna at the start of his career but never featured for the club in La Liga and spent the majority of his career in the third tier of Spanish football.
(
Image:
Alex Caparros)
He helped Mallorca to their promotion in 2019 and was intent on making up for lost time and would not be deterred from starring in the top-flight.
He suffered a freak injury during the game against Barca, in which he fractured his testicle in an injury that could have seen him lose the body part.
Medical staff of Mallorca instructed him to come off as a half-time substitute but he insisted that he did not feel the pain and was intent on carrying on.
(
Image:
Alex Caparros)
The player told an interview with Spanish radio station Cadena Ser this week: “I don’t know how you got that information, it is a secret that my family and I had!
“That it is true that in the last play of the first half at the Camp Nou, I had the bad luck of suffering a testicle fracture.
“At halftime they told me I had to come off, but I had practically no pain.
“The decision not to have surgery was more difficult.
“I have the work done, I have three children, but there was a risk of losing the testicle!
“It was still a complicated decision. On Saturday we were playing in Vigo and I decided to continue without operating.
“Luckily it did not get any worse.
“I didn’t want to stop for the world.
“I had reached the age of 31 without playing in the first division.
“I asked about the risks and they told me that the main risk was losing the testicle. It was crazy, but it was like that.”
Remarkably, the midfielder played the entirety of the match at Barcelona and indeed did not sit out any first-team matches or training sessions due to the injury.
He spent the majority of his career in the lower divisions with Racing Ferrol, Racing Santander and Albacete before joining Mallorca in the summer of 2018.
He has since clocked up 122 first-team appearances for the club – playing an instrumental role in two promotions to the top-flight.
