How Thibaut Courtois ruptured his ACL in Real Madrid training

Thibaut Courtois poses with a thumbs up and a smile in his living room. The photo, posted by the Belgian on social media, was taken just hours after he was ruled out for the season. The Belgium international now faces a lengthy recovery process after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

“Thibaut says he felt the crack in his knee and knew it was ruptured,” sources at the club say. Courtois headed for the dressing room in tears because he knew it was more than a scare. Madrid’s doctors quickly began to assess the type of injury, but it was clear that the cruciate was affected. The 31-year-old goalkeeper, devastated, had to go home on a stretcher.

Courtois’ training ground incident

The incident happened in a training exercise just before the session was about to end. Courtois went down for a ball, and at that moment felt a crack as the ligament had given way. Carlo Ancelotti wanted to keep an eye on the Belgian at all times as well as Luis Llopis, the goalkeeping coach, who was visibly affected.

Asensio success

It remains to be seen who carries out the surgery on Courtois, however, one of the most highly-rated specialists to carry out ACL surgeries is Dr. Manuel Leyes, who in 2019 operated on a similar injury to Marco Asensio with success to the point that the Spain international has been able to continue his career without any issues to date.