Atletico Madrid’s Saul Niguez has revealed that he has been playing football with a catheter for the last two seasons after a kidney Haematoma left the midfielder urinating blood.
Saul’s health issues stretch back to the 2014-2015 campaign when, during a Champions League clash with Bayer Levekusen in February 2015, the midfielder was substituted just before half-time with a problem.
The Spaniard was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a kidney haematoma, which forced Saul to spend the night in Germany while the rest of the Atletico squad returned home.
And Saul has now admitted that he is still dealing with the implications of that issue by revealing that he has been using a catheter while playing football for the last two years.
The 22-year-old also confessed that each match and training session would leave hip expelling blood from his system but his desire to continue playing saw him take the risk.
Saul told Spanish TV channel Mega: “For the past two seasons I’ve been using a catheter and after every match or training session I would pee blood and it was certainly not an easy time for me.
“I was gambling with my health and driven by the desire to play first team football for Atleti.”
Saul has played 27 times in La Liga this season for Atletico, starting 23 of those outings.
Squawka