five stitches – Corriere.it

Mental strength is one of the best qualities of
Karim Benzema. We are talking about the winner of the last Ballon d’Or and one of the strongest centre-forwards of recent years. And he once again demonstrated his tenacity in the match between his Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano, a match won 2-1 by the Blancos on Wednesday 24 January. And unlocked by Carlo Ancelotti’s team by a goal from the Frenchman, who had several problems during the match.

The reason? The answer came after the match, when his agent explained what had happened to him on the pitch. Benzema suffered a bad injury to his right foot: a deep cut in the central part and near the toes. Perhaps for a stomp on 10′ of the first half, with the score still at 0-0. Despite this inconvenience, for him, he played the whole game even scoring a goal. Never giving in to the pain. And thus launching the challenge to Robert Lewandowski, the Barcelona striker who leads the scorer rankings and won La Liga with the Catalans.

hier @Benzema au bout 10 mn un adversaire lui marche sur le pied , mais comme son habitude il ne dit rien joue tout le match en souffrant arrive mme marquer ! la fin le doc he a fait 5 points de suture aux vestiaires . #UnHerosDiscret pic.twitter.com/BzF8eT1Lwu

— Karim Djaziri (@KDjaziri) May 25, 2023

Benzema resisted until the end, then at the triple whistle he ran to the infirmary and the foot wound was stitched up with five stitches. The video and images went around the web. In the face of pain, Benzema behaved like a stoic. A demonstration of his mental strength. Real Madrid pampers him, despite the disappointments in the league and in the Champions League, they have no intention of doing without their striker. Who in December was the great absentee, not without controversy, at the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Tournament in which his France finished second, surrendering in the final only against Lionel Messi’s Argentina.