Manchester United defender, Raphaël Varane, has opened up on the impact of suffering multiple concussions during his career.
According to the 30-year-old, it has “damaged his body.”
In an interview with L’Equipe, Varane revealed that he played many matches for club and country while dealing with the effects of head injuries.
The former France international, who retired from international football in February 2023, said he got concussed during a 2014 World Cup round-of-16 clash against Nigeria.
Varane said he finished the game on “autopilot” and that “if someone had spoken to me at the time, I don’t know if I would have been able to respond.”
He said he also played with head injury symptoms for Real Madrid against Manchester City in the Champions League in the COVID-19-affected 2019-20 season.
He said he left the field against Getafe in a LaLiga game five days prior and felt “intensely tired” in between games, but attributed that to usual end-of-season fatigue until he reached the warmup of the European game and felt so tired he “almost wanted to slap himself.”