Aikshrees Kanduraja

And a little factotum was sent up to tell me that he would come after training.

So at this point, training started at like 3.

I've been there, I remember, since 10.

I've resorted to going to the bathroom and just like lapping water into my mouth out of the sink because I have not been given anything...

that's nothing, you know, I'm like eating like wadded up paper towels, just chewing on paper, just to trick myself.

Like I'm starving.

Um,

And then I didn't know what had happened at training that day.

I found out later, but I could tell because I am an astute judge of character, John, as you know, that something bad had happened at training.

I kind of saw the players trudging off with this look of, there but for the grace of God go I, you know, this kind of like, you know, they had seen something.

I found out later that the something they had seen was a young player named Ibrahim Afelay had torn his ACL.

And so I had, of course, was not allowed to watch training, so I didn't see any of this, but I could sense something was wrong.

And that is one of those things that I think really affects players' moods because they know that all of them are one bad turn, one injury like that away from sitting out for a year, you know?

And maybe, like in the case of Ibrahim Afalai... And maybe never quite being the same.

Never quite being the same, exactly, which is precisely what happened to Afalai.

Anyway, at this point, it's past 6 p.m., so I've been there for a full working day, nothing to eat, super hot.

And I'm not one to be dramatic, John, but...

I was basically being held prisoner at the Barcelona training ground by that point.

That's how it felt.

So finally, it's just before 7 p.m.