Tecatito Corona back from injury: “I need to feel like a footballer again”

For Jesús Manuel Corona, the past few months have been a nightmare - and by far the most testing time of his professional career. ‘Tecatito’ suffered a severe injury that made him miss of the season with Sevilla as well as the Qatar World Cup, in which a decaffeinated Mexico side struggled and didn’t even make it past the group stage.

Now fully recovered and eager to feel like a footballer again, Corona is gradually building back his rhythm in Spain’s top flight. Last weekend, he played his first competitive match since August. He was brought on for the last 10 minutes of Sevilla’s away meeting against Real Valladolid and celebrated by hitting the third goal in stoppage-time - showing great composure and control inside the box before rifling a fierce strike past Jordi Masip.

Grateful to team mates, the club, the fans

The 30-year-old Mexican is relieved to be able to be involved in the final few games of the campaign. ‘‘It has been a moment in my life that I never imagined I would go though. I know that life brings difficult things and that there will be many more ahead - hopefully not many. But I never thought something like that would happen to me. I had a really hard time, and my family did too. My son asked me. ‘How are you? Are you going to come back?’ and you have no idea how thing like that hurt, you want to be there, but you can’t,’’ Corona explained this week. “With the help of my family and my team mates and the people at the club, the whole of Seville, everyone has been great with me. They helped me to take things forward and come out the other side”.

2026 World Cup

At 30 years old, Tecatito could be one of the cornerstones in Diego Cocca’s scheme for the next World Cup that will be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada simultaneously. In fact, now without Andrés Guardado and possibly without Héctor Moreno or Héctor Herrera, the Rayados youth player will have to take a step forward.

Sevilla’s remaining games

His club Sevilla, are currently 10th in LaLiga but just one point off the European qualifying places. This evening, the Andalucians will be attempting to book their place in the Europa League with their semi-final against Juventus poised at 1-1. Although Corona is not registered for the competition (due to his injury) he will be lending his support from the stands. After so many months on the sidelines, gruelling rehabilitation sessions and visits to the hospital, things have finally started to look up for Tecatito, who is more of a footballer with every day that passes.