Docs told me it was a miracle I survived
Returning Wolves ace Jimenez on sickening injury
RAUL JIMENEZ yesterday revealed how he nearly died from the head injury that shocked football.
The Wolves forward returned from nine months out in the opening Premier League defeat at Leicester.
Jimenez played the whole game on his comeback from a sickening fractured skull at Arsenal last November.
The Mexican was knocked unconscious in a clash of heads with David Luiz and needed oxygen on the pitch before emergency surgery.
When he eventually came around in hospital, Jimenez admits doctors told him he was fortunate to have survived. He said: “They told me it was like a miracle to be there.
“The skull fracture, the bone broke and there was a little bit of bleeding inside the brain. “It was pushing my brain to the inside and that is why the surgery had to be quick. “It was a really good job by the doctors and I am back here. It is a miracle to me to be here with you. The doctors and surgeons have told me I can now live my life like before.” Jimenez cannot remember the sickening clash of heads. In fact, he can’t remember much of the Arsenal game. He said: “I remember I went out to see the pitch with my team-mates. Then we returned to the dressing room.
“But then lights off – I can’t remember anything else. I can’t remember when I first woke up in the hospital.
“I have some things from the hospital but nothing really clear. I asked for the physios to send me videos of different sides of the pitch. I liked to see what happened. For me it was like it never happened because I don’t remember.”
Jimenez is relishing the prospect of his first League home game back at Molineux on Sunday against Spurs with a capacity crowd expected. He said: “It’s going to be amazing.”
Jimenez has backed Premier League protocols over head injuries after revealing Wolves do regular brain tests on their stars.
He said: “I think here in the Premier League they have a really good protocol when these things happen. What happened to me shows we have to be prepared. It can happen anytime. I am supporting that we have to be prepared, knowing what to do in those moments.
“Here at Wolves we do now some different tests on laptops so if it happens, something like that later in your career, you know where you were and where you are after the injury.”
This season the amount of heading players do in training in English football has been severely restricted because of welfare concerns, under plans agreed by the game’s main governing bodies.
It follows neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart concluding former West Brom striker Jeff Astle died of a brain condition normally linked to boxers, which was caused by heading footballs. Stewart’s research, commissioned by the PFA and the FA, found former footballers were between two and five times more likely to die from degenerative brain diseases.
The PFA have since set-up a new neuro-degenerative disease working group after the family of 1966 World Cup winner Nobby Stiles said football needs to “address the scandal” of dementia”.
The former Manchester United and England midfielder died in October 2020, aged 78, after suffering from dementia and prostate cancer.
Stiles is one of five members of England’s World Cup winning squad to have been diagnosed with dementia, which has led to the death of four of them.
But then lights off – I can’t remember anything else. RAUL JIMENEZ RECALLS THE DAY OF HIS INJURY