Everton’s André Gomes had so many messages of support from footballers around Europe during his recovery from his horrific ankle dislocation fracture that he is reluctant to name names. “I cannot possibly mention everybody, so it would be unfair to pick out just a few,” the midfielder says. “There were texts and calls from Spain and Portugal and all over England, including one or two that I didn’t expect. I was surprised when Alan Shearer got in touch, for instance, if I can give just one illustration of support from someone who doesn’t even know me. He told me he had recovered from something similar that had also happened at Goodison.”
Gomes was contacted in the immediate aftermath of the accident in a game against Tottenham in November not only by Son Heung-min, who held himself responsible, but also by Serge Aurier and Eric Dier. “All the Spurs players were really nice to me. Son just wanted to apologise but I explained to him that sometimes things like this happen, and obviously he hadn’t done it on purpose. If I had thought anyone had done it on purpose it would have made the situation even worse.”
Coming on for the last half-hour against Arsenal last Sunday and immediately improving the Everton side, Gomes is playing again after 112 days out. Many imagined he would not be seen again this season with an injury that needed repair to bone and ligament, but the speed of his recovery is a testament to the quick thinking of John Hollingsworth, the Everton club doctor, and his own hard work.
“The doctor was unbelievable,” Gomes says. “He put my ankle in the right place out there on the pitch, he was really fast. I knew what he wanted to do and I rejected the oxygen because with the adrenalin I was mad, I was angry. He rotated my ankle twice, which I can tell you was painful. I was screaming and I could see people in the stand holding their hands to their faces and telling their kids not to look. I think I actually punched Luís Boa Morte [then Everton assistant coach] at some point because he was standing nearby.”
The reason Gomes saw all the faces in the nearby stand was because the last thing he wanted to look at was his injury. “I knew my ankle was pointing in the wrong direction and I didn’t want that image haunting me for the rest of my life,” he says. “To this day I have refused to watch the videos or look at any of the pictures. I was already in pain before I fell, before Aurier tried to get the ball again.
“I knew instantly that something was badly wrong and I just tried to avoid everything. I’m glad I did that, because you rerun the whole incident in your mind hundreds of times afterwards; you can’t help it. You keep thinking: ‘Why me?’ Or: ‘I might have been all right if I had done something differently.’ It’s like a flashback that won’t stop happening, so I really don’t need the picture of my foot in my memory.”
Gomes went back to his native Portugal in December and January, training and doing hours of rehabilitation every day apart from Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. “Basically all I did for two months was work, gym work, bike work, work in the pool and mobility work morning, afternoon and night,” he says. “I’d take little breaks for food and then I would rest and sleep. I’m not going to lie, I had some bad moments during that period, but it was all worth it when I came back and started again with the team.
“Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel made me incredibly happy, even if I had to tell everyone in training to go in as hard as they normally would and stop going easy on me. Playing at Arsenal was good for my confidence too, because after an injury like this you never quite know whether you will be the same player again. When I was out I found it hard to even follow football on television. Sometimes I couldn’t watch an entire game, but now I feel comfortable again and the manager has said I can take things at my own pace.”
Gomes was sorry not to be able to say goodbye to Marco Silva, though the pair have spoken since the former manager’s dismissal in December, but like most Evertonians was impressed at the calibre of his replacement. “I was sad for Marco because we felt he had been really unfortunate,” he says. “But obviously football is about results as well and we didn’t have those. Carlo Ancelotti is a really smart guy with a lot of experience as a player and a manager and he is helping us, our results have improved. I am happy to have had the chance to work with both of them and I think Carlo is building on what Marco started.”
