Eden Hazard has found his persistent injuries at Real Madrid turned into a gigantic problem hard to surmount since he moved to Spain in 2019.
His dream move is gradually turning into a nightmare with series of niggling injuries, his situation can be compared to those of Bale and Kaká, although so far he has been comparatively worse.
Almost every football enthusiast has no doubt that his move to the Santiago Bernabeu two years ago was definitely the right step in the right direction for the Belgian having somewhat conquered the English Premier League.
Injuries and footballers are inseparable friends that have been ordained to be together for as long as the footballer remains active. Hazard’s current injury makes it the seventh injury that has blighted what was suppose to be an illustrious career for the Belgian at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Apparently, with the situation of things with Eden Hazard, his career with Los Merengues is now looking like another injury-prone Kaka & Bale that failed woefully for the Spanish giant despite joining for a huge amount of money from Milan & Tottenham respectively.
The Belgian arrived at the Spanish capital as a legitimate superstar, and perhaps the heir to the departed Cristiano Ronaldo who left for Juventus with an incredible record behind him from Chelsea, which put him among the array of stars at Madrid.
Hazard’s latest injury, plus the host of injuries he has suffered has seen the Belgian missed over 350 days without playing in just one and a half year with the Los Merengues. This is the tenth injury since he arrived at the Bernabéu in the summer of 2019 for €100 million (plus variables).
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The persistent injuries are quite mind-disturbing for a player who is physically fit back at Stamford Bridge, tearing apart opponents’ defense with mind-blowing skill and great movement on the ball. While the same can’t be said of his time at the Spanish capital missing 44 matches out of the 79 played since he joined and been on the doctor’s treatment table.
As Hazard’s reoccurring injury persist, the question of whether he would be a success at Real Madrid keeps popping up from the Madrid faithful and the neutrals. The Belgian is gradually becoming a big worry for club President Florentino Perez, due to the huge money spent to secure his services and perhaps Zinedine Zidane who gave his consent for his signature.
The Belgian is undoubtedly Chelsea’s biggest player during his stint with the London side and he did carry the Blues on his shoulder, winning titles for them without any form of lengthy records of injuries.
However, during those times specifically during the reign of Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese gaffer did warn that constant fouls on the Belgian could take him out of the game.
Ironically from 2015 to this time, it’s looking quite like those warning from Mourinho are somehow becoming a reality with the persistent injuries of Hazard. Which further gives credence to the words of Portuguese back in 2015.
“I think that people who love football in this country must be in love with Hazard, but I think that considering the way he is been punished by opponents match after match, and he’s not been protected by referees, then maybe one day we will no longer have Hazard”.
If Florentino Perez has foreseen the impending injuries of the Belgian coming, even at age 29, which is a very critical period of a footballer’s life, perhaps he wouldn’t have obliged to Zidane’s desire to bring the former Chelsea star on board.
Before Hazard made his debut, the expectations of the Real Madrid fans were on the high scale based on the antecedent of the Belgian right from Chelsea. Unfortunately for him, he turned up overweight for the start of pre-season and since then it has been from one injury to another.
Eden Hazard Injury Struggles Just Like Kaka & Gareth Bale
There are, obviously, dissimilarities between the Kaka and Bale circumstances. Bale won four European Cups and was significant in three of them, in addition to other things; while the Brazilian played four seasons with Los Blancos with his greatest success being the 100-point La Liga title triumph. Despite the fact that he was not a starter, as Jose Mourinho favored Mesut Özil in his beginning XI.
While the Welshman’s numbers are similarly more regrettable than Eden Hazard and Kaka, especially regarding minutes played.
Eden has featured in only 35 of Madrid’s 81 games since his appearance, playing simply 29.6% (2,176) of the total 7,350 minutes. Also, that rate will keep on dropping as Madrid plays more games this February without Hazard being in play.
Kaká, who endured niggling injury issues during his reign in Bernabeu while battling to secure the starting line up because of the presence of Ozil, is not excessively far behind Hazard, playing just 33.5% of the total minutes during his time at Madrid (6,888 minutes of 20,430 minutes – 120 of 226 games)
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Bale wins the injury battle by a wide margin having played 62.6% (17,926) of 36,300 minutes (251 of 401 games).
The Welshman’s initial two seasons at Madrid didn’t bring about numerous injury issues, which is the point at which he offered his best form. It was from his third season that the injury issues started to kick in and his game, thusly, went declining.
The only thing Hazard has in his favor is time. Out of Bale, Hazard, and Kaka, Eden is the only play that remains active at Madrid, although Gareth Bale still has a contract until June 2022 and could return back to Spain in the summer if Mourinho doesn’t fancy him.
As it stands the Belgium captain is in a torrid time of his career, and it’s not looking like he’s going to come out of it soon with his reoccurring injury.
Plus Hazard is on the wrong side of 30, a precarious age that could see his professional career end abruptly without getting back to his days of wizardry and electrifying display on the ball.
The Belgian has racked up these unimpressive numbers in a year and a half. He still has time to turn things around at Madrid and live up to the Galactico expectations that surrounded him on his €100 million arrivals and break the jinx encircling the injury-prone big-money signings.
