In fact, upon his arrival at the training center around 11 a.m., Ivan Leko was going to speak with the team doctor before preparing for the training session. The latter was going to inform him of Bodart’s crime, but above all he told him that the information already appeared on various media sites…
“I’m not angry but sad. You’re doing your job, it’s very good, I’m not angry with you, great! But it makes sense that I would be disappointed. Normally, I speak first with the staff and the players, not with you. Here, I discovered this in the press… It’s weird. In football, that doesn’t happen often. I was surprised, but OK, we’ll adapt (Editor’s note: some ears may ring, internally). From today, we will avoid this question about the state of the troops.”
Cleaning Monday
How was Leko not aware yesterday that Bodart would be unable to play at Genk? In fact, the Liégeois was injured on Saturday during the Walloon clash, which he still finished. This Monday, the starters were just entitled to a clean-up, treatment and rest, not to real collective training. It was therefore apparently only this Tuesday that Leko was going to be informed of the confirmed unavailability of his goalkeeper.
Additional solo training, city trip and family happiness: the secrets of Arnaud Bodart’s rebirth at Standard
The Croatian was then asked to comment on the early return of Matthieu Epolo, whom he wanted to breathe some time after more complicated performances. “The objective was to protect him, relieve the pressure and prepare him for a new start later in the season, recalled T1. If Arnaud is indeed out until the end of December, it would be a shame for us. He has been very good in the last two games. He brought the peace and confidence the team needed.”
As a reminder, there are five games left at Standard before the winter break: at Genk (Cup), against OHL (7/12), at Beerschot (14/12), against Ghent (22/12) and at Mechelen (26/12). ).
