'I played with a chicken in a boot for four months'. The story of footballer Patrice Evra and the doctor's opinion

Former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra played with a raw chicken in his boot for several months. About this he reported in one of the interviews. The French footballer told about the case when the opponent stepped on his foot and badly damaged it, but he was not confused and found an unexpected solution to the problem.

In the hospital, I told Monaco head coach Didier Deschamps: “It hurts too much. I can’t play. I can’t even walk!”

Patrice Evra

However, the team needed me and the doctors tried everything to take away my pain. Nothing was working. Then one of the club officials said to me, “Why don’t you just follow the old school?” I exclaimed: “What do you mean?” He explained, “Just put a piece of chicken in the cleat.”

Patrice Evra

It sounded crazy, but I’m an open-minded person. So I went to my local butcher. The butcher said: “What do you want?” I replied, “A piece of chicken, but very thin.” He said: “Thin? How thin?” I replied, “I’m going to put it in my cleats.”

He only laughed, but I went home with the chicken. Then I ordered new cleats: one size 42.5, the other size 44. I tried passing the ball. The feeling was okay. It hurt, but it was tolerable.

So I ended up playing with a chicken in a cleat for four months. I didn’t practice with it – my mom would never forgive me for spoiling food – but before every match I visited my butcher, who said, “Good morning, Patrice. Is it your usual?”

The chicken allowed me to play so well that I moved to Manchester United in January 2006.

Doctor’s opinion

leading physician – orthopedic traumatologist, podiatrist (foot specialist)

“Patrice Evra’s experience is definitely out of the box. Interestingly, if classical treatment is applied, medicine is guided by documentation, studies, laboratory data and other evidence of therapeutic techniques. In the case of intuitive therapy, we have to rely on possible effects that may lead to the elimination of pain.”

Suppose that an opponent stepped on Patrice’s foot and, in addition to the contusion, could have injured him with a closed fracture of one of the phalanges of one of the toes. In this case, the pain was pronounced and especially aggravated when the pressure on the toes in narrow shoes.

In soccer, there are not many attributes that can affect the game. One of the main ones is cleats. Among athletes there is an opinion that shoes should maximally repeat all individual features of the foot.

Some soccer players for a tighter fit of the feet with cleats keep the feet in warm water along with the shoes. It is believed that in this way the skin takes the shape of the foot, which has a favorable effect on the athlete’s game.

This could have been a factor that increased the painful sensation when Evra took a blow to the foot. After an injury, the toe swells and tight shoes start to put extra pressure on the injured area, which increases the pain.

Patrice noted that along with putting the chicken on, he changed his shoes and the new boot was a size and a half larger than usual.

The chicken could have played the role of an additional softening element, a kind of “absorbent cotton” that protected the painful area from pressure and additional traumatization. The soft structure of the chicken meat prevented the fingers from hard contact with the cleats, thus reducing painful sensations.

It is difficult to retrospectively rule out the possibility of additional exposure to raw meat in the form of the proteins or fats it contains. We can even assume that the chicken that Patrice Evra used was raised on natural feed, without harmful additives or, on the contrary, the meat contained antibiotics, possibly some other elements that had an effect on the healing of the athlete’s injury.

The most basic message that can be drawn from this case of unconventional approach is openness to the new, even if not the most obvious.

If we summarize some general summary of all of the above, we can conclude that we can not exclude “folk remedies” as a method of additional treatment, which will complement the main treatment. However, it should be noted that in cases of health problems should be based on the opinion of doctors and use any means that affect the body, only after consultation with a doctor.