The bad omen of Salma Paralluelo's tears: injury to the medial ligament of her left knee

Less than 15 minutes into the Nations League semi-final, Spain , already ahead, suffered a setback. Sweden's Amanda Ilestedt brought down Salma Paralluelo in the box with a vicious knee-high tackle. Her scream echoed throughout La Rosaleda. She stood up in fear and tried to continue, but a few minutes later she collapsed after asking to be substituted. The tears she shed as she left the locker room were already a bad omen.

Sonia Bermúdez criticized the Romanian referee for the "aggression" she had allowed and for her decision not to send off the center back for what she considered "aggression," but the damage had already been done and marred Spain's rout .

The Barça player underwent medical tests this morning in Las Rozas confirmed that she has an injury to the medial ligament in her left knee . She felt bad because she knows what it's like to injure her knee. In 2021, while playing for Villarreal, she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in the same knee. It took her a long time to recover and she wasn't able to perform at her best until the World Cup in Australia in August 2023. In fact, the injury has left her with some lasting after-effects.

Paralluelo was trying to reach his best level after finishing last season with worse numbers than he expected, which was confirmed at the Euro Cup , where his performance was far from his best.

Call to Athena

As was the case with Esther 's injury, which occurred after Sonia Bermúdez's first squad, the national team coach has opted to call up Athenea del Castillo to join the training camp this Monday and travel with the team to Gothenburg for the return match against Sweden.

The Real Madrid player was one of the players left out of a squad that the coach described as "dynamic," and in which she has already had to make two substitutions in this international window.