Why did abidal lift the trophy

Usually, it is the captain who lifts the trophy and in this case it would have been Carles Puyol. However, unselfishly, Puyol wanted Vilanova and Abidal to be the first people to lift the LaLiga title. With Vilanova waiting in front of his players, Puyol, who had the trophy in his hand, signalled to Abidal to join his manager. I think often about the time Alex Song genuinely thought Carles Puyol wanted him to lift La Liga trophy ahead of liver cancer survivor Eric Abidal pic.

A returning Eric Abidal lifting the trophy after winning his battle against cancer. It was a joy to behold, and you know what? Back in March, I would have swapped both the Champions League and the Spanish League if it could have ensured the swift return of Abidal.

Abidal was in the middle of his best ever season for the Blaugrana, filling in seamlessly as center-half in the absence of Carles Puyol, and his imperious showings got better and better with every match. In fact, he even scored! And what a goal it was, to send us through in the Copa at the expense of Athletic Bilbao. The whole ordeal started back in March, when Abidal was diagnosed.

As I said, I wanted to trade it all, just for the speedy recovery of our player. Everyone knew that Abidal was ill, with a tumour on his liver, but that was it. As it was announced that surgery had been moved forward, I felt even worse. This was surely a bad sign? Would he survive even? Questions that make you shudder News broke out that surgery was a success, and the football world breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The most widely accepted belief at the time, was that Abidal was fine, would return to football, but not until the new season. So, when I saw on my Twitter feed that Abidal was making an effort to return before the new season, I dismissed the thought. The 3 rd of May, Subscriber Only. Scenes from the st Liffey Swim. Team Ireland's medal winners in rowing. Morning Sport Briefing Subscriber only. Monday To Friday See a sample.

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