“Martim? Everyone took 2 or 3 seconds to realise…” | OneFootball

Martim Fernandes had a difficult night last Thursday against Nottingham Forest, scoring an own goal and suffering an injury to his right ankle that will rule him out, at least, of this Sunday’s match against Estoril.

At the press conference previewing the game against the Canaries, Francesco Farioli spoke about the young defender’s state of mind and also recalled another difficult moment experienced by the number 52 shirt earlier this season.

“Regarding Martim, first of all, we had good news about his ankle. Despite the significant swelling, the MRI was much more positive than our initial feeling. We will have to assess over the next few days how long he will be out, but it is definitely better than we expected. As for the own goal: it is not the first time we have spoken about difficult moments or mistakes this season. It happened a few weeks ago with Francisco [Moura] and a few times with Samu because of the penalties. It is part of the game and, when we play so much, these events become more frequent. The reaction at the Dragão was fantastic and that of his teammates was remarkable. It took everyone 2 or 3 seconds to understand what had happened, but a second later, everyone rallied around Martim so he could keep playing. Of course, those two minutes were not easy, between the own goal and the injury immediately afterwards. If he could, he would certainly erase them. But a player’s real growth comes through these moments. Martim has already proved it: when he returned from a previous injury, he gave away a penalty in Nottingham after having seen a red card in Arouca. That was probably his lowest moment and, after that, he had two or three months in which he shone at the highest level. For a 20-year-old player, having this quality is incredible. I believe he will come back from this injury to help us and to compete at the highest level. Now it is up to him, but also to the team and the fans, to create this feeling of unity so we remain close-knit in these final 45 days. They will be demanding days, but also very challenging. We are fighting for good things, things that should give us the right vibes. With the right attitude, I believe we will achieve what we deserve,” said the Italian coach.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.