Chapter 90 Supporting role

The English Football Super League in the 2006-07 season has come to an end, and England has been disbanded except for two teams for vacation. This year is a good year for European players. Because there is no international competition, they can finally get a complete relaxation and rest after working hard for a season.

Although the players of those two teams did not get the right to rest so early, I believe many people would envy them because they reached the finals of their respective cup matches.

Liverpool, who just lost the qualification to participate in the Champions League next season, will have to continue to fight in the League Cup next season. The good news is that they finally reached the final in the League Cup this season, and their opponent is Sevilla of Spain.

The League Cup final will be held on May 17, just four days after the league ends.

At this stage, the media were reporting on the League Cup finals, and Liverpool became the team with the highest appearance rate. As Benitez, his first season in Liverpool was amazing, helping the "Red Army" to regain the European Champions League championship that had been lost for many years. But afterwards, whether in the league or in the cup, Liverpool seemed to have fallen into a bottleneck and could not achieve anything.

After being blocked from the goal of next season's Champions League for two consecutive seasons, he urgently needs to use a champion with enough weight to prove his ability. The UEFA Cup has become his last life-saving straw. If he is still empty this season, it is hard to say whether Benitez will leave next season.

While everyone was paying attention to Liverpool, Don led his team to conduct closed training at the Wilford training base in Nottingham.

Most media in England hate Donn, which is related to his always "closed training". Before him, there was very few head coach in English football that had such frequent closed training. This may be related to his former Chinese fan and was really familiar with "closed training".

There are pros and cons to closed training, but for him now. The pros and cons are more than cons. At least his team can avoid harassment from the annoying media.

As the final day is getting closer, he still has a lot to deal with...

Pepe has fully recovered. Although he has not participated in the game, his performance in the team's confrontation match made everyone believe that Pepe, who appears in Athens, must be Pepe, who is in good health and in good shape. The problems that have plagued the forest team's defense have been solved.

Ashley Yang also returned to the team after recovering from injury, and there was no problem with going to Athens with the team.

Before such an important competition, the Forest team solved the injury problem. In theory, Tang En should be very happy. But his brows were always frowning these days. The players didn't understand what was going on and were a little confused.

In fact, even many members of the coaching staff don’t know why. Apart from Donn, only two assistant coaches, Chris Lak and Don, know the whole story, oh, and the team doctors know.

According to the practice of English football, the first thing the team doctor needs to notify the injured player himself. Instead, the team coach, the head coach will decide how to tell the players. If a team doctor directly crosses the head coach and tells the injured player about the injury, then the team doctor will basically not be able to make it in football - no club will ask a team doctor who has had a close contact with the player behind his back.

But now Fleming's problem is not that he bypassed Tony. Done told the player about his injury, but that the player took the initiative to find him.

Most players take the initiative to find the team doctor. They just ask about their own injuries. At this time, the team doctor cannot say anything casually. At most, they use ambiguous words like "You recover well". If he clearly tells the player how he is injured, he may be swept out by the club.

Today's Nottingham Forest is controlled by the American boss, and there are fewer and fewer traditions and conventions in this way. Don't be a head coach who cares about this point. But Fleming is also an old team doctor who has worked in this club for decades. That tradition has long been deeply engraved in his bones and has become a professional habit.

Two days ago, I took the initiative to find the team doctor Fleminglander, who was the team's substitute goalkeeper Paul Gerrard.

He has recovered from the surgery and started resilience training a month ago, starting with a simple physical rehabilitation plan. It does not involve specific goalkeeper training.

Twenty-five days later, he began to enter specific goalkeeper training. The problem is here.

Paul Gerrard found that his reaction speed, prediction, and vision were affected. He was unable to correctly position the distance between football and himself, and occasionally his eyes would have a brief astigmatism. This is a fatal problem for a professional goalkeeper.

Worriedly, he found the team doctor Fleming, hoping that he would have another comprehensive physical examination for himself, especially his brain. He suspected that these were the sequelae of that head damage. However, he did not tell his true situation. He just said that he hoped to have a comprehensive understanding of his body after he recovered from the injury.

This request aroused Fleming's vigilance, and he has been a team doctor for decades. How could he not guess what the players have?

This requirement must be approved by the head coach.   Fleming told Gerald that he had to talk to the boss.    to answer him.

The next thing that happened was that Fleming went to find Tangen. At that time, Tangen, Tang and Chris Lack were present, so they became the only four people who knew about this.

Don Eun frowned and listened to Fleming's retelling of the incident, he had a very bad premonition.

As far as he knows, in his world, Cech was hit by Reading's men and broke his head, and fell into a coma on the spot, threatening his statement to his safety. Unexpectedly, in just three months, he returned to the court, wearing a "tank helmet" that protected his head to guard the goal for Chelsea, and is still the top three excellent goalkeeper in the world.

This incident made Donne maintain a certain optimistic attitude towards what happened to Paul Gerald. He believed that since Cech could recover from three months, we would be more conservative and let Gerald recover in eight months, there would be no problem, right?

He is not a professional doctor, nor does he know some medical knowledge about the head. He only referred to Cechdi's actual experience. He thought that Gerald would not have any major events.

"I'm not a cranial expert either." Fleming told Donn, "but I don't think a comprehensive physical examination is necessary. What we need to check is Paul Gerrard's head. And it's not just a fracture, it's a nerve in the head. I suspect..."

Don Eun, who had been listening to Fleming's speech in silence, interrupted him and continued, and he had made up his mind. "Tomorrow you take Paul to the Royal Medical College of Nottingham University, and I will wait for you with Professor Constantine."

Constantine is well-known in the medical community throughout the UK. He is an expert in brain nerves. As a doctor, Fleming also knows this. Since it was Professor Constantine who took the initiative, he has nothing to worry about.

He nodded.

The next day, Paul Gerard and Fleming came to the hospital together and met head coach Tony Donn and Professor Constantine.

After seeing these two people, Gerald felt a little bad. He felt that things were not simple, otherwise why would the leader appear here? Shouldn't he lead the team to train on the sidelines of the training ground? The Champions League final is approaching, and he has no reason or time to come here specifically for a substitute goalkeeper to do a physical examination.

After seeing Gerald, Donn smiled and stretched out his hand to him: "Good morning. Paul. You look in good spirits." Next he introduced the old man around Gerald.

"This is Professor Constantine, the most famous brain expert in the country."

Constantine smiled at Gerald and shook hands with him. "Hello, Paul. Tony has told me about your situation and I need to do some simple check on you."

After hearing this introduction, Gerald thought that his bad feeling just now finally became reality.

He shook hands with Professor Constantine with a little hesitation, and smiled reluctantly.

Tang En didn't say anything, but took everything into consideration.

Constantine also noticed the uneasiness in Paul Gerald's heart. He smiled and patted Gerald on the shoulder: "Don't worry. Young man, it's just a simple examination." He blinked at Gerald, and then led the other party to do a brain examination.

Fleming and Don did not follow him. They were afraid that a group of people would follow him, which would instead cause a greater psychological burden on Gerald.

Fleming, who followed Constantine, was like a helpless child, fearing his unpredictable future.

He looked back at Don and Fleming, who gave him a smile. He didn't put down his smile until he walked away.

"I wouldn't have rented Akinfeyev back if I had known it... It made us rely on Van der Sar alone for a season." Sitting on the bench in the hospital corridor. Tang En took out a cigarette and lighter, intending to light a cigarette for himself.

"Who knew before this happened?" Fleming pointed to the smoking ban sign on the wall.

After Tang En looked up and saw it, he took back the cigarette and lighter.

There was a silence in the empty corridor, and no one spoke until Constantine led Paul Gerald back to them.

"It's OK." Professor Constantine nodded to Donn. Then he turned his head and said to Gerald: "The inspection results will not come out tomorrow, and we will notify the club directly at that time."

Gerald did not object, and Don stood up and patted his shoulder: "Go back and have some rest. Paul. No need to train today."

After sending Paul Gerard and Fleming out of the hospital, Don returned.

"I knew you had something to say to me." Constantine was not surprised by Donne's backlash.

"I want to know the results of the inspection." Tang En asked straight to the point.

"Wait until the results come out. I will call you tomorrow..."

"Come on, professor, don't use the set that Gerald uses against me." Tang En walked over and sat down, "If you don't tell me the truth today, I won't leave."

Constantine shook her head with a wry smile. He really had no choice but to deal with such a scoundrel.

"In fact, the inspection results did not come out." Constantine stood up from her seat, walked to Donn, and handed him a glass of water. "But I can tell you my personal feelings. Here..." He pointed to his head and said. "...not very optimistic."

"Is the eight-month recovery period still not enough?" Tang En murmured.

"No, it has nothing to do with the length of time, Tony." Constantine corrected, "I don't think even if you give him two years of recovery time."

Don Eun looked up and looked at Constantine standing in front of him, a little surprised: "You mean..."

"I don't think he's suitable to be a professional goalkeeper anymore."

This was like a thunderbolt hitting Tang En's head, and he was stunned for a moment. He turned his head, "What did you say? Professor?"

"His head was severely damaged. Although he has recovered after surgery,... I think there is no problem living a life of an ordinary person, but it is no longer suitable for him to fight fierce professional football." This time Constantine said in more detail.

"Not everyone can recover their careers after experiencing such a serious injury..." Constantine looked like "I'm sorry".

Tang En suddenly stood up from his seat, shocking him.

He looked at Constantine, and the look made the professor feel uncomfortable. But soon, he lowered his head. He raised his head again and saw that the uncomfortable thing was gone. He said to Constantine: "But the examination results have not come out yet, right, professor?"

After a moment of silence, Constantine nodded: "Yes. The result was not out. What I just said was based on my personal experience. Maybe the situation was not that bad?" He shrugged and smiled easily.

Tang En also grinned at him. This person is a well-known figure in the medical community across the country. He has been engaged in clinical research for so many years. Experience is a kind of wealth in it. He said that the judgments made based on personal experience are actually almost inseparable...

"Then, I'll wait for your call tomorrow, Professor." Tang En waved his hand and left Constantine's office.

In the car back to the training base, Tang En sat in the back row without saying anything, and Randy, who was in the front row, couldn't ask. He knew that Tony must have encountered some problems, and this person always looked fearless. In fact, he also had a lot of worries in his heart. Others don't know that, he, who is almost Tang En's "personal driver", is very clear.

Tang En thought about a football fantasy novel he had read before traveling through time. It was a novel that was quite famous on the Internet. The protagonist in it was miraculously cured by an unknown Chinese medicine doctor after experiencing an injury that was enough to destroy his entire career, and his ability was improved to the next level, as if it was not an injury, but a supplement. This is an online fantasy novel, and it is normal for any plot to appear. Tang En didn't think it was bad. But in his opinion, it was also a loss to the protagonist, if it were someone else. Maybe the author would arrange to be a tragic character - think about the protagonist's poor high school classmate.

At that time, he regarded everything that happened to the protagonist as a fantasy plot in a fantasy novel. Now the cruel reality appears in front of him in blood.

Paul Gerrard can no longer continue his career. How big a blow would this be for a professional football player?

That's right, Tang En admitted that Paul was not capable enough to be the main goalkeeper, his personality was ordinary and not very noticeable, and the media paid no attention to it. He seemed to be born as a supporting role. But in Tang En's eyes, this is also one of his players. In his world, there is no distinction between supporting roles and protagonists. Everyone is the same, playing football for him and receiving his training.

You are not the protagonist, Paul Gerald... If you are the protagonist, fate will show you the light of miracles and let you stand up again from the dark abyss hell. No matter how absurd or incredible this fate seems, as long as you are the protagonist.

He sighed softly.

When Eastwood was injured and wanted to give up, he went to the hospital to tell him that fate is a net, and different roads are intertwined and it depends on how you choose. The optimistic gypsy in Eastwood chose to continue moving forward. This time, he couldn't even say this to Paul Gerrard, because fate didn't even give this supporting role a chance to choose. Perhaps for Paul Gerrard, fate is a path that goes straight up and down without any forks. He has never given him a brilliant moment, and finally followed the right coach, and he will have hope to touch the championship trophy. But because of this serious injury, he has to face the problem of retirement or one day die on the court.

Is this an option?

That's really damn!

The next day, Professor Constantine called Done directly to the phone. He was leading the team to train, and Paul Gerrard was also training alone on the training ground, accompanied by the goalkeeper coach.

"Bad news." Constantine did not say "bad news" directly, probably because she was considering Tang En's feelings. He knew that this person cared about his players and took great care of them. He regarded it as his own.

Don't feel better than Constantine imagined, maybe because he figured out something on the way back to the training base yesterday. Hearing Constantine say this, he didn't show "a deep heart" as he just waited silently for the professor to finish his words.

"I suggest that he be retired as a doctor."

He was staring at Paul Gerald with sunglasses, but his eyes were still not speaking.

Everyone was silent on both ends of the phone for a while.
To be continued...