He broke his nose three times during his long career. Commenting on the France – Austria Euro 2024 meeting for TF1, this Monday, June 17, Bixente Lizarazu was one of the best placed to know the sensation experienced by Kylian Mbappé, who broke his nose after violent contact with Kevin Danso.
The current captain of the France team therefore suffers from a broken nose, with displacement of the nasal septum. If he is not going to undergo an operation, his participation following the competition still remains completely unclear. Bixente Lizarazu, with his feelings, tries to clarify the situation…
What are the main effects of a broken nose on a footballer?
Already, there are several types of fractures. For example, injuries that do not affect the nasal septum, I know that I was quickly able to continue my season, I did operations during the holidays. But once my nasal septum was so deviated that I had trouble breathing.
These are comfort problems, it can bother you in your sleep, so then there are bad feelings on the pitch… There, I don’t know exactly what he (Kylian Mbappé) has. If the nose is just crooked, it’s aesthetic, it’s not serious, it’s not embarrassing in itself. But if it poses problems for breathing, for an athlete…
Does it have an impact mentally, to then return to duels, etc?
For a footballer, apart from when you have to head it, there are a lot of things you can do without touching your nose. Unless you take a nudge, that’s what often happened to me, since I was smaller than my opponents… So personally, that didn’t stop me from continuing to play.
Also read. Euro 2024. “Reassuring news” for Mbappé… Relive Philippe Diallo’s speech
Is it okay not to have surgery right away?
That’s medical advice, I can only respond based on my feelings. When it didn’t bother me to play, I waited until the end of the season. And during the operation, we put hair pieces to straighten the nasal septum. When you do, it’s really annoying because you have to keep them on for a long time. I also have a horrible memory of when the doctors take them out of you, you feel like it’s buried in your brain, and it’s 15 meters long…
