Running right alongside Brazil 2014, this is my day-by-day story of how Spain won the last World Cup. You can catch up on previous posts.
These stories are from Spain: The Inside Story of La Roja’s Historic Treble, by Graham Hunter
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Ask any Spanish journalist in Durban and they will tell you there is only one selection dilemma for the semi-final against Germany tomorrow: to Torres or not to Torres. That is the question. Everyone trains, including Fàbregas, who has been to hospital for a scan on his right leg after a bad impact in training last night, revealing heavy bruising and no bone damage.
Nobody in the media notices Carles Puyol finishing training and then wandering up to Raúl Martínez: “I’m in so much pain, I’m not going to make it for this game tomorrow. We’re going to have to tell the Mister.”
When he talks about it Puyol calls the problem his gluteus muscle, which is between the hip and the top of the thigh. But he is feeling a tight, pinching pain from there down the side of his thigh to just above the side of his right knee. If Puyi tells you he is not going to be able to play it takes a very brave man to say, ‘I can fix that’, but that is what Martínez does: “Why tell the boss before you’ve let me have a look at this problem?”
Then he goes to work.
Before morning comes they pack in hours of agonising treatment. Puyol can suddenly move more freely and the Barcelona captain is nothing if not used to playing through pain.