The Girondins, relieved but still cautious after the emergence of their Honduran striker Alberth Elis from the artificial coma on Wednesday, want to turn this episode into strength and fight for him at the end of the season where they remain ambitious.
“On Sunday, I decided we had to be together.
In bad times, the group is strong", confided Thursday during a press conference the coach Albert Riera, in regular contact with the parents of the Honduran player present in Bordeaux "who gave me a lot of hope ".
Alberth Elis, evacuated on Saturday against Guingamp after a head impact, is still hospitalized at the Bordeaux University Hospital, where he had been placed in “a protective artificial coma” before undergoing surgery during the night from Saturday to Sunday.
On Monday, the Bordelais were resting before meeting again on Tuesday for “difficult training” according to Riera, marked by this supportive photo in which around a hundred club employees appeared behind a banner “All with you, Alberth!”
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Alberth Elis was injured during Bordeaux's match against Guingamp.
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“Transform everything that happened into strength”
“Luckily, yesterday morning we had this information (of Elis waking up) with the permission of the doctors.
I needed to give the team a little hope because it was hard,” admitted the Spanish technician.
“With what happened, we realized that we were a family given how it affected and affected the group.
These are things we are not prepared for.
When I see the reaction we had during the match, how we united around Elis, these are striking things and in a serious moment, these are beautiful things which bring us together and inevitably we are going to have this extra soul”, mentioned the full-back Clément Michelin, also called to speak.
Players, staff and employees, the whole Club is thinking of you Alberth 💙🤍 pic.twitter.com/qMD4SotaZP
— FC Girondins de Bordeaux (@girondins) February 27, 2024
“Elis is a player who brings this joie de vivre to the field, he gives 10,000%.
It’s very hard, we are together all the time, it strengthens us even more,” he continued.
Asked about the impact that this episode could have in the approach to the match against Rodez which could tip the Girondins into the first part of L2 in the event of a good result on Saturday, Michelin recalled that “we are professional, we are must manage this as best as possible.”
“We are obviously looking towards the Rodez match with lots of things in our heads and we are going to try to transform everything that has happened into strength and we are going to fight for Elis,” he concluded.