Mohamed Sissoko has completed one of the most remarkable comebacks in football after helping Liverpool into the last four of the FA Cup only a month after being temporarily blinded in his right eye.
Sissoko played the full 90 minutes of Liverpool’s 7-0 thrashing of Birmingham on Tuesday evening and finished the match without the Edgar Davids-style protective eye shield he has been advised to wear for the rest of this season.
The Mali-born midfielder, who also has French nationality, had a hand in his side’s first and third goals as he confounded fears that his career could be over.
Sissoko (21) revealed this week he had been unable to see from his right eye for 36 hours after being caught by the high boot of Benfica midfielder Beto during a 50-50 challenge in Liverpool’s Champions League defeat in Lisbon on February 21.
Sissoko was stretchered off and taken to a Lisbon hospital, where a specialist pronounced that he had only a 20% chance of seeing again.
That prognosis proved incorrect but there were some agonising days before Sissoko was sure that a more encouraging second opinion was accurate.
”There were lots of lonely hours at home when I was very worried and very scared about what was going to happen,” he said.
”It was such a bad injury. I don’t mind admitting I cried a lot. I thought ‘this can’t be happening to me’. It didn’t seem possible that I could be in this situation. I just had to lie there and rest and hope that my vision would get better. It was only a couple of weeks but it felt much, much longer.”
Sissoko has only recovered about 80% of his vision in the eye and is not sure if his sight will be fully restored.
But he is confident he can resume his career and put the trauma of the last month behind him.
”Three weeks ago I had zero vision in my right eye. Now it’s about 80%, so that is a quick recovery,” he added.
”It’s hard to say if it’ll ever be perfect. There’s a chance it might, but also a chance it might not. Only time will tell. The big thing for me is I can play football again. That’s all I want to do.” — Sapa-AFP