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"I still remember 2015, when I was injured before the games against Atletico and Juventus in the Champions League. I didn't want it to happen to me again." In the press room of the Etihad Stadium, Luka Modric, voice of Real Madrid in the previous semifinals against Manchester City, reflected on his physical problems and the importance they have in the destiny of the white team. The Croatian missed the decisive stretch of the 2014/15 Champions League and Madrid ended up falling in the semifinals against Juventus.

That's why, 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 was clear. You had to take risks. 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 Serb, who arrived touched to the first Grand Slam of the year, made 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 make a name for himself thanks to Liverpool, whose staff required his services regularly. "Use a placenta cream that you apply with a machine that creates pressure waves. Many players have gone through his clinic and I think it's safe, "explained Rafa Benitez, coach of the Anfield team, in 2009.

According to the doctor's website, it achieves a "regeneration of damaged muscle tissue with manual massage with roller and original gel composed of different natural substances, through the use of a flow of high-frequency electricity on the damaged tissue", and emphasizes, before the critical voices about its methods: "After therapy, the results of doping tests are negative to the presence of illegal substances in blood and urine".

Kovacevic warns that "muscle tissue is completely regenerated within seven days and the patient is ready for regular training." The treatment is seen to have worked with Modric, who under the supervision of Madrid's medical team was put 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 tried to do something different on the advice of some friends and I came back sooner than I thought. The important thing is that I feel fine. I wanted to be and here I am," he told reporters yesterday.

At 37, which 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 half an hour against Getafe. Nothing and nobody will take him out of Carlo Ancelotti's starting eleven, in which he has been undisputed during all the qualifiers 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 second leg 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 left him out of the quarterfinal round against Atletico and the semifinals against Juve. It has never happened again. With him, Madrid breathes.

  • Luka Modric
  • Real Madrid

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