Man City’s season was plunged into very, very partial turmoil last week when their back-up goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo, ruptured an achilles tendon in training.
This looked to have left City with just one senior stopper, Ederson, for what looks like being the majority of the remainder of the season.
Thankfully, the situation was soon rectified as the Premier League champions simply recalled 19-year-old Aro Muric from NAC Breda to take Bravo’s place on the bench while the Chilean underwent surgery on his gammy foot.
Bravo has revealed that since going under the knife, he has received a ‘get well soon’ letter from Real Madrid, which is slightly surprising seeing as he spent two years of his career as a Barcelona player.
Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped Emilio Butragueno from reaching out across the divide and offering his sincere sympathies to the knick-knacked goalie on behalf of Florentino Perez and everybody else at Los Blancos.
Muchas gracias al @realmadrid por tan noble gesto. Actos como este le hacen muy bien al fútbol. Un fuerte abrazo. pic.twitter.com/uUi1Mql3SN
— Claudio Bravo Muñoz (@C1audioBravo) 28 August 2018
The letter reads thus:
Dear Claudio, on behalf of all of us at Real Madrid, especially our president Florentino Perez, I want to send you our best wishes for a very fast recovery
We are very sorry about what happened, because injuries are the worst part of football, but we have no doubt that, with your professionalism and commitment, you will continue to give much joy to football fans.
With all our respect and admiration.
Bravo responded by thanking Real for their “noble gesture”.
The City ‘keeper isn’t the first player to receive such a letter either, with Sunderland forward Duncan Watmore also finding an envelope from the Bernabeu PR office on his doormat when he suffered a second ruptured cruciate ligament in December 2017,
Watmore was just six games into his comeback having spent the previous eight months recovering from his first ruptured cruciate ligament, and said that the letter gave him a “real lift” in his hour of need.
Who’d have thunk it? Real Madrid sending healing hands across the world like they’re football’s stationery-based answer to Medicins Sans Frontieres.