Our own James B. Mac Donald was watching the game live in Osijek yesterday and Srna’s injury did not seem harmless from the bleachers.
The weather was less than perfect in Osijek for the friendly match against Israel on March 23, 2016, as it was a cold damp evening filled with drizzle and rain. The crowd, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind the weather as this was a highly anticipated friendly match. I had great seats for the game sitting 8th row up from the centre field with pretty much the entire pitch in front of me so I didn’t miss a thing including the tragic moment when the team captain Dario Srna go down after a good hit, and it all happened in just mere seconds.
To recap that moment, it occurred about 30 minutes into the game. The field was, by then, a complete mess deteriorating and becoming progressively worse by the second (If you were watching at home you were not able to see how bad the field was). The player’s hard pivoting turns to recapture the ball played a role in the end zone of Israel and divots were occurring left right and centre .
In the corner of the field, 10 feet away from the goalie Darijo Srna was gravitating towards the ball for the perfect setup and once he went for the rebound he got severely hit by Gershon. The Israel defender delivered a good blow to Srna’s leg as they toppled over each other.
The Medics ran towards Srna and you could see the pain as it was hard for him to recover getting up. The Medics worked hard to assess him as they were afraid to move him. Darijo Stands for a quick second as the crowd cheered him on. But it was obvious as he goes down again with too much pressure for his leg. The Medics called in for the Medical cart that arrives 2 minutes later. The rest is history as he is carried off with the first real substitution happened. Šime Vrsaljko enters the game to replace him.
During the intermission for the teams to recover for second half was the final decision to remove him from the rest of the friendly game. From the back of the stadium the ambulance takes Darijo Srna away. You could hear some of the well wishers bid him a farewell as it traveled slowly down the street.
Today is the question will he be ready for this big friendly game against Hungry this Saturday. There is nothing worse than seeing the captain go down.
In various media reports Srna is quoted “I do not know if I’ll play in Budapest, Doctors will see, it was a nasty knock. I was really scared. But I hope that nothing is broken. Now a lot easier to stand on the leg. It seems that I had a lot of Luck.”
