Pablo Insua: The most difficult time of my life!

“It was a really special moment for me,” Insua reveals his emotions at the time. “When you lie in the hospital for so long, there are moments when doubt creeps in, especially when the doctors couldn’t give any guarantees that you can ever play professional sport again,” says that Iberian, who suffered such a bad pleurisy that the virus reached his pericardium. He lost eight kilograms of his bodyweight following this. “Luckily, it was then quickly revealed that I would become one-hundred per cent fit again, so I always had a clear goal in front of me. I’ve now finally reached that and I’m only looking forwards to the future now!”

The 24-year-old received support from his teammates during his injury lay-off. His fellow players visited him again and again to cheer him up. “The lads came by to bring me pizza regularly to put meat back on my bones following my weight loss,” says the centre-back. He received extra motivation for his comeback in his home country, Spain, over Christmas and the New Year. In the following weeks, Insua worked daily on making his comeback. The rocky path back to professional sport was no walk in the park for the Spaniard. “Ever since I could think, I’ve always played sports and I’d only been injured for three weeks at the most until now,” he says. “The injury lay-off was certainly the most difficult time in my life so far!”

The defender’s lacking game practice was barely noticeable in his first Bundesliga game, even if his timing wasn’t quite perfect at a few moments, such as his slide tackle on Maximilian Arnold. “Looking at it from a distance, it looks worse than it was,” he explains. “I knew immediately that I’d gone in too late and would be booked, but it looked a lot more dramatic in the replay than it actually was.” Insua is of the opinion that, as a defender, he has to bring a certain toughness to the game.

Now the 24-year-old is particularly happy about making his first Bundesliga appearance in the VELTINS-Arena. “Our fans’ support is unbelievable. Lots of Royal Blues make the trip to away games; you could be forgiven for thinking that we’re playing home games,” he says. “I haven’t seen an atmosphere like that in the VELTINS-Arena in any stadium in Spain.”