Spain midfielder Aitana Bonmatí, the two-time Ballon d’Or holder, has been hospitalized with viral meningitis lower than per week earlier than the UEFA Girls’s Euro 2025 event begins.
Spain coach Montse Tomé stated late on Friday that her star participant had felt unwell and was taken to a hospital in Madrid the place she examined constructive for meningitis.
Spain’s crew is about to journey to Switzerland on Sunday for the event. Its first recreation is in opposition to Portugal on Thursday in Bern. It can additionally face Belgium and Italy in Group B at Euro 2025.
“Aitana is an important participant for us and we are going to look ahead to her,” Tomé stated after Bonmatí missed Friday’s pleasant in opposition to Japan within the Spanish capital when Spain beat the guests 3-1.
Tomé stated that Bonmatí began feeling dangerous with a fever throughout apply early on Friday.
“She has licensed me to say that she has viral meningitis,” Tomé stated. “The phrase is horrifying, however the physician tells me that she is underneath management. She is going to stay within the hospital and we don’t know for a way lengthy.”
The 27-year-old Bonmatí has gained the highest particular person award for girls’s soccer for the previous two years. The Barcelona participant was key in Spain profitable the 2023 Girls’s World Cup.
Bonmatí’s imaginative and prescient, dribbling expertise, passing and objectives have been additionally been important to Barcelona reaching 5 consecutive Champions League finals, with the Catalan membership profitable three titles.
Her absence would put extra strain on Alexia Putellas, herself a two-time Ballon d’Or winner, and fellow Barcelona midfielder Patricia Guijarro to led Spain. Towards Japan, Tomé began 18-year-old Vicky López instead of Bonmatí.
Three years in the past, Putellas tore her ACL three days earlier than beginning the 2022 European Championship. Spain was eradicated within the quarterfinals with out its then-top participant.
Spain ought to nonetheless be favored in its opener in opposition to Portugal, a crew it beat twice in April — together with a 7-1 residence victory — within the Nations League.
Reporting by The Related Press.
Need nice tales delivered proper to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports activities account and observe leagues, groups and gamers to obtain a customized publication every day!
Get extra from UEFA Girls’s EURO Observe your favorites to get details about video games, information and extra
Supply hyperlink
