Darwin Nunez: How New Liverpool Star Almost Quit Football After Career Threatening Injury

• Darwin Nunez suffered a nasty cruciate ligament injury that saw him almost quit football when he was playing for a youth team in his native Uruguay
• Nunez had also to contend with adapting to new surroundings after moving from where he grew up to go to Uruguay’s largest city, Montevideo
• The striker is now on the cusp of making his debut for one of the biggest clubs in the world after Liverpool paid a club-record fee to acquire him from Benfica

New details have emerged of how new Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez almost quit football at the age of 17. Nunez has benefitted from a stellar campaign with Benfica and will now be competing in one of the most lucrative leagues in the world next season.

But before all the stardom, Nunez had to deal with career-threatening injuries during his formative years. He was part of Jose Perdomo’s Penarol youth team.

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According to Daily Mail, it was Perdomo who convinced his parents to allow Nunez to travel over 400 miles to join an academy with other hopefuls.

Nunez left his father Bibiano who worked as a builder and his mother Silvia who cleaned houses and made the journey to Uruguay’s capital Montevideo in search of the proverbial greener pastures.

As if adapting to living away from home was not enough, Nunez tore the cruciate ligament in his right knee, one of the worst injuries a footballer can have. He had corrective surgery in February 2017 and it was here, that he almost gave up on football.

A normal cruciate ligament injury would mean that a player will be out for at least six months, but it took Nunez one-and-a-half years to be able to play competitively again. Perdomo convinced him not to give up just yet, following a relapse of the same injury in November of the same year.

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His breakthrough came when he joined Spanish second-division side Almeria and scored 16 goals in 32 appearances. This put him on the radar of other European clubs. He eventually joined Benfica where he struggled in his first season but has kept going since.

Nunez scored against Peru in October 2019 during his first senior call-up for the national team. The soon-to-be 23-year-old will be hoping he can adapt quickly to life in England and prove his credentials to Jurgen Klopp.

How Barcelona missed the opportunity to sign Darwin Nunez

Sports Brief had earlier reported that Uruguayan international Darwin Nunez could have been on the roster of FC Barcelona instead of swapping the Portuguese top-flight for the allure of the Premier League.

Nunez has hogged the headlines as one of the budding top talents owing to his outstanding performances in the just-concluded season.

The 22-year-old striker scored 34 times in 41 appearances across all competitions for Benfica last season, including six goals in UCL games, two scored against Liverpool - his imminent new employers.

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