SAO PAULO // The most important figure in Uruguay’s victory against England on Thursday did not score a goal or provide any assists.
His name is Walter Ferreira. He is the 62-year-old physiotherapist for the Uruguayan national team, and he has spent the past month working on Luis Suarez’s left knee.
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After scoring the first of his two goals in the 2-1 win against England at Sao Paulo's Arena Corinthians stadium, Suarez made straight for the Uruguayan bench.
He sought out Ferreira, embraced him and signalled to the crowd that they should appreciate his importance.
In pictures: In pictures: Luis Suarez stuns England with late winner
Suarez was especially grateful to Ferreira, to whom he expressed heartfelt thanks after the game. He repeated his gratitude in a YouTube video, recorded in the Uruguayan changing room.
“There are people who know how crucial it was for me to have their support. If it wasn’t for him [Ferreira], I would not have been here today,” said Suarez, who, despite cramping in the later stages, scored the decisive goal in the 85th minute.
“I cried a lot with him, because it was such a hard time, and complicated because of what he was living through as well. He made a sacrifice to remain with me the whole time.”
When Suarez mentions it was a hard time for Ferreira, he knows what he is talking about, because the physiotherapist dedicated himself to the player, despite suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer. Ferreira completed his chemotherapy treatment just before the World Cup began.
“While my wife and my two sons are the most important things in the world to me, now this man is, too, because of everything he did to aid my recovery, because 90 per cent of this is the work of Walter Ferreira,” said Suarez, Uruguay’s all-time leading goal scorer, who had surgery on the meniscus on his left knee on May 22.
There were fears after the operation that Suarez would not play in the World Cup. But the Liverpool striker was determined not to miss the tournament and returned to competitive action just 28 days after the operation.
Ferreira was the key to his recovery.
In the first days after surgery, since Suarez was unable to walk, Ferreira travelled daily to the footballer’s home. In no time, he convinced Suarez to abandon the use of crutches and start walking.
The rest of the exercises and massage treatments were done at Ferreira’s house, with Suarez’s wife Sofia responsible for driving him there and back from their Montevideo home.
Ferreira completed his last chemotherapy session 21 days ago, a little before leaving for Brazil, said the physiotherapist’s wife, Carmen.
He has been in Brazil since, in Sete Lagoas, the Uruguay base, caring for Suarez.
“The doctors gave him permission to travel because the tests showed all was OK, even though he still had a slightly low white blood cell count,” Mrs Ferreira said.
“But they told him to go to the cup and that it would do him good, because his work is what gives him the most pleasure. He left fearful and with a huge case of medicine, but thankfully his white blood cell counts are rising.
“The praise for what happened against England is two-fold, for Luisito and for Walter, too, because they achieved it together.”
Suarez was ecstatic at the end of the game and recalled that the English coach Roy Hodgson had said before the game that they would be facing an opponent who was not in peak physical condition.
“For those who doubted that I would be 50 per cent fit, I had to show them in this match, and there was the answer, this gives me the courage to go forward,” he said.
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