Eden Hazard has suffered numerous injuries since joining Real Madrid in the summer of 2019.
He should be able to play against Chelsea in the semi-final second leg of C1, but at what level after two years of battling injuries?
Former teammates from the Chelsea era believe that the Belgian striker pays for years to train as a dilettante.
A version to which those who knew Eden Hazard in Lille do not adhere.
A delight as unique as an epidemiologist in line with the health policy of the President of the Republic: Eden Hazard is not on the list of injured or unavailable players for a big Real Madrid match, even if no one sees him as a holder except " Chichou ”.
Ten injuries in two years, 380 days of cumulative absence, 60 games missed, and Madrid supporters who have almost forgotten his existence, too busy claiming Mbappé or making themselves believe that Vinicius will end up being something that a Robinho du ( very poor.
A fair return of karma after ten years of not giving a damn in training, if we are to believe some former teammates of the Belgian who have been unleashed on his account recently.
Obi Mikel (former Chelsea midfielder): “I have always said that Hazard is one of the most gifted players, he had it all: speed, power, skill, technique… He was just behind Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
But he's not that devoted.
He doesn't train well, he's the worst training player I've ever played, the laziest, but on Sunday he was still the best player in the game.
"
Filipe Luiz (former Blues defender): “He didn't come back to defend much, he didn't train well, always with the laces undone, and five minutes before the match he was playing Mario Kart in the locker room.
But on the pitch, no one could take the ball from him.
He dribbled three or four players and if the defender got too close, he would escape with his power.
"
Eto'o about Eden Hazard (2014)
It's still amazing to predict the future so well pic.twitter.com/LLyeaZIO1I
- Aliotop (@Aliotop_off) September 29, 2020
Samuel Eto'o's prophecy
Affectionate criticisms which recall the prophetic threat of Samuel Eto'o on the set of beIN in 2014: "If you do not train, Mr. Eden Hazard, after two years we forget you, and football is going so well. soon there will be another kid who will be born who will be even stronger.
The little music of the moment, therefore, theorized in the press of the flat country by Gilles de Bilde, a former legend of Anderlecht: the boy is lost to the cause at 30 years old.
“Eden has relied her entire career on her talent.
He never worked.
He signs for Real Madrid, becomes the club's record transfer, he is expected to be Cristiano's replacement… and he arrives overweight.
And after each injury, he has to catch up to reach the level of his teammates.
But that doesn't work because Hazard never learned how to build a physical base.
"
So many reproaches that make Jean-Michel Vandamme jump, the former chaperone of the Belgian at the Lille training center.
“People forget that Eden is not quite 20 anymore and that he has been playing twice a week since he was 16.
I do not mind being said that he has always preferred to play matches rather than train, but to say that he did not work what he had to work especially in his training years, these are bullshit.
"
"In Chelsea, he took legs and he was hardly ever injured"
Back in the post of general manager of the northern training center a few days ago, Vandamme dives easily into his memories.
“The laps were not his thing but when he had his second growth peak and the tendons and back were stabilized, we started to 'load'.
Sometimes I had to call him to my office to remind him that such a weight training session was essential.
He replied "no problem sir, I will do it tomorrow".
And he was doing it.
"
Grégory Tafforeau, who saw the rascal go pro, confirms in general.
There were some slaps which are not lost the first days, and Hazard was able to do once or twice the gastro stroke to miss a scrub, but nothing crazy.
“I remember a guy who was working.
He started with Claude Puel, a coach fan of big physical sessions, so he was served, in reserve too.
He never missed a session and sometimes even doubled with CFA at the start.
He wasn't the guy hiding in the gym.
Even with his talent, he would not have made this career without a minimum of work ”.
Moreover, it should be noted that there is no rumor going around the editors about a possible lack of professionalism by Hazard in Spain, while this is the kind of rumors cleverly distilled in the world of Madrid, as long as one player gets out of line. The story of the extra pounds of the first summer, an error of appreciation recognized as off by the player's clan, is no longer constantly brought up on the mat, even if the visually coated silhouette of the former best Premier player League can be confusing at times.
Eden Hazard has indeed thickened legs and buttocks in London in record time.
"Eden has a particular morphology, conducive to muscle alerts and weight gain," estimates Tafforeau.
But in Lille, we were weighed every week, and he did not gain a gram.
Then he transformed at Chelsea, he took legs to be even more difficult to move.
And he was hardly ever injured ”.
"He does not miss any physical exercise in training"
We must say what is. In his last season in England, Hazard hovered over opposing defenses, more reliable than Hamilton's Mercedes. Commentary at the time signed Maario Innaurato, former physical trainer for the Devils: “I was lucky to get the figures for Chelsea's games, he has improved a lot in terms of physicality and intensity. It is true that Eden is not a big fan of muscu, but under his air of little joker, he does not miss any physical exercise in training. And then in these clubs, it is the accumulation of matches that serves as a barometer: when we play three times a week, the training days are mainly days when we work on recovery ”.
It was a good time.
Today, Hazard trains a lot more than he plays to find the rhythm of the top level.
Zidane almost left it for three weeks with the group before summoning it, leaving it to Grégory Dupont to retype it upstream.
Real's physical trainer knows the maggot well: he was already on his back in Lille ten years ago.
Dupont still believes in it
"I still had them both recently, I can tell you that he does not let go," promises Vandamme, who takes a little time to philosophize about the career of his protégé: "He told me his project when he was 15, and it wasn't to become the best player in the world. It was creating a game, putting on a show for people to come and see. People want superheroes, but he wasn't quite armed like the two monsters. “Too detached from statistics, too focused on the collective, too carefree, which can also look like qualities.
Can the blaze still resume, in Madrid, or elsewhere?
"If we put him back in order and we are patient with him, we will see him again, because at 30, if the tendons and joints are in good condition, we are not done playing football.
Stamford Bridge, Wednesday, 9pm, would be a good time to show it.
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