Eden Hazard was the best player in the Premier League and one of the best in the World during his time at Chelsea. Hazard was mentioned among the very best during that time.
His Performance for Chelsea and the Belgian National Team propelled Real Madrid to spend a record €150m in 2019 on Eden Hazard with less than one year remaining on his contract at Chelsea.
Hazard could not live up to the excitement surrounding his big-money move to Real Madrid and was hit with an ankle injury three months into life at the Bernabeu.
The Belgian international’s four-year stay at Real Madrid was plug with injury, and he could not reach the level he was at Chelsea. Hazard has revealed that the Covid pandemic prevented him from achieving full fitness, and he was forced into early retirement in 2023 at 32.
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What did Eden Hazard say was the reason behind his failed spell at Real Madrid?
The Chelsea Icon revealed on The OBi One Podcast: “I think I was a bit unlucky with that period with Covid, because if you want to know the real story, I went to Dallas to do the surgery on my ankle then I came back to Madrid and it was Covid,” he began. “I had two to two-and-a-half months of Covid, me at home alone, no physio to do the rehab. I did my rehab alone. If I had to choose one thing to change, I should have said to the doctor, ‘Bring a physio, I need a good rehab’. I have to do [it] because I want to play at the highest level.
“And then when the Covid finished, we came back on the pitch, I pushed my body like crazy but my ankle was not the same and then I break everything the season after and then you know the story.
“If you want me to change one thing it’s call the physio, ‘Come home, I know it’s Covid but please come home, I need rehab’. And things could be different at that time.”
Asked if Real Madrid could have helped him regain his fitness, Hazard defended the club, saying: “At that time people were not allowed to on the street or to go to their job, and I didn’t push the physio or the doctor to…’Oh come on, I need someone’,” he continued. “For me, my rehab, I did a few exercises, a few things alone. For me it was enough, I didn’t think that I had to do more.
“At the beginning, I didn’t think I needed to do more. After two months I think, ‘Oh yeah, I should do more’, but at the beginning I was okay, I did my thing, I go outside running a bit, I do some exercise and it was not that bad, but then I came back on the pitch and I felt it.”
He continued: “After that period with Covid we came back on the pitch and we had like two months to play until the end of the season. And we were that close to being champions so I was saying to [manager Zinedine] Zidane, ‘I want to push, I want to go’ and then the day we finished champions I said, ‘No, I can’t do any more, I’m finished, my body is suffering a lot so I need to do a proper rehab’, but it was already the end of the season.”
