11/03/2020 18:17
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 11/03/2020 18:17
A neurosurgeon and specialist in brain and
spinal
interventions, Dr.
Leopoldo Luque
(MN 160588) had the phone ring in 2016. A colleague friend told him that Diego Maradona was looking for a neurologist and it occurred to him that Luque and his partner Ariel Sainz, with who head the Columna Baires medical center could be the chosen ones.
From that moment, Luque's life had a before and after.
"We couldn't believe it. 'What Diego? Diego Maradona?' We asked. Until the day we had to go see him, we didn't tell anything, just in case. The night before we didn't sleep, before arriving we had to take a muscle relaxant , because we were very nervous, "recalled the man in whose hands is the health of the greatest soccer player in the history of Argentine soccer.
In Diego's close circle they assure that
Luque is the person Maradona listens to the most
.
This is not why he has been exempt from twists and turns in the relationship.
The same doctor revealed that in recent weeks he had felt the reluctance of the Gymnastics DT who had postponed his physical exercise routine and the diet that had given him such a good effect during the quarantine in which Diego intensified his training and dropped more than 10 kilos.
View this post on Instagram
Thank you very much to my doctor, @ Doctor.Luque, for always taking care of me, as if we were family.
A post shared by Diego Maradona (@maradona) on Jun 30, 2020 at 12:15 pm PDT
After a first meeting in 2016 in which they talked much more about football than health issues, Maradona gave the green light for Luque to take charge of his recovery.
“Our job was more than anything to contain, to listen to him, to talk about his health, about his needs;
also sports.
We were chatting for an hour, "explained the doctor.
During these four years the neurosurgeon had as its main mission to improve the motor skills of the Ten, plagued by pain in the knees and ankles.
But
the link became much closer
, professionally and personally, since Diego settled in the country (after the steps in Dubai and Culiacán) and there he was able to start outpatient treatment.
As part of the plan, on July 24, 2019, the world champion in Mexico 86 underwent an operation on his right knee at the Olivos Clinic in which they placed a prosthesis to relieve the pain he has suffered for a long time due to a acute synovitis and osteoarthritis.
"Today I have to think about myself and my health. The doctors ask me to stop, because the years go by and it hurts more and more. I have to undergo two operations that I have been postponing for a long time. Thank God and Tota (his mother ) None is risky, but it takes time and rest to be able to do them, and I think this is the moment, "Maradona had explained in June 2019 when announcing his farewell to Dorados de Sinaloa.
Nobody imagined at that time that in September and after the operation he would become a new gymnastics coach.
"This is a difficult time for him. I didn't see him well because of the quarantine, personal problems, not being able to work. It happens to all of us,
the emotional impact of quarantine accentuates habits that are not so healthy,
" said Leopoldo Luque in July when Maradona's social networks delivered videos of an active Diego, running on the treadmill, boxing or playing ball.
To achieve that positive click that improved Diego's daily life, Luque went through a tense moment that was about to end his relationship with the star.
“I looked for a way to provoke him, I wanted him to get angry, to react to a challenge.
I said: 'Diego, this is not like that, this depends on you, I want to help you, will you let me help you?'
'Do you have a car?
Well, go away, 'he replied.
I was about to leave, but I backed off and said, 'You're going to kick me out when it's time.
You taught us that when the situation is bad is when you have to show up. '
And I asked him: 'Do you want to be better?
'Yes', he replied.
'Who do you swear you're going to be okay with?' I insisted.
'He swore it to my mom,' he told me.
And it started to be okay. "
Luque was born in Lanús and lives in Adrogué with his wife and two children
.
It is the namesake of the former Santa Fe striker world champion in 1978, but his relationship with football is limited to the amateur field.
"You have round feet," Diego joked when they kicked for a while in the park at Brandsen's house.
Luque received an honorary degree for his studies at the University of Buenos Aires and began his career there with an ad honorem assistantship in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Faculty of Medicine.
Then he worked six years at the Barceló Foundation and since 2017 he worked at the German Hospital and El Cruce.
Since 2019 he is one of the directors of Columna Baires, an establishment that aims to solve spinal pathologies with minimally invasive interventions and rapid recovery.
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