At Real Madrid, there are conflicts that sometimes do not leave the locker room. Internal fights between players, between teammates, between departments... What could happen in any club or company. "It's normal," they insist at Valdebebas. But in the offices of the sports city of the white team, there is a silent war that has finally erupted: the medical services war. The error in the initial diagnosis of Kylian Mbappé's knee injury in December has been the latest trench of the conflict.
To analyze the war, we must first identify the main characters. The main name is Niko Mihic, a Croatian doctor who arrived at Madrid in the summer of 2017 on the direct recommendation of Florentino Pérez. His arrival at Valdebebas coincided with the departure of Dr. Jesús Olmo, who ended his association after several disagreements with Ramos or Cristiano, highlighting that the relationship between footballers, especially the stars, and doctors is not always ideal. Almost ten years later and despite the different protagonists, the reality is not very different.
Mbappé played all of December in pain after Real Madrid's doctors misdiagnosed the knee
Mihic was head of the medical services between 2017 and November 2023, when he was relieved of his position after several cases that caused a stir at the sports city and weakened the Croatian. First, the differences with Benzema during several months in which he suffered muscle injuries and then, the main one, regarding the treatment of Arda Güler's knee injury, signed in the summer and had problems with his knee in the initial period at Valdebebas. Since 2021, alongside Mihic was Felipe Segura, former head doctor of Granada, who took on the highest position when Mihic was removed in 2023.
During these two years in which Mihic has been absent, although he continued to act as an advisor, Real Madrid has continued to suffer from the drama of injuries, both muscular and articular, increasing the level of distrust between the locker room and the doctors and among the different actors surrounding the footballers in their daily lives: doctors, trainers, readaptation specialists, physiotherapists, Sanitas employees, players' personal trainers... Amid so many injuries, blame has been shifting from one office to another.
Players' trusted professionals
Footballers, who only surround themselves with people they trust the most, have their own like-minded employees within the club. Again, this is something that happens in all clubs and is a situation that, in the long run, due to the friendship that arises between players and physios, generates mistrust among those who do not reach that intimacy. And that tension leads to differences in criteria. Trainers, many of them friends of players, and doctors do not always agree on workload levels, deadlines, or return-to-field protocols.
And all this leads us to Mbappé and December. The error in the diagnosis after his first MRI, mistaking the image of the left knee with the right one, has caused a lot of internal turmoil at Valdebebas, softened after the player said, "it's not true," although the club has not denied it.
There have been no dismissals, but Mihic's return in January coincided with the departure of at least one professional from the medical department, as confirmed by this newspaper. The Croatian's return was not entirely well-received in some sectors of the medical services. Felipe Segura, Mihic's replacement in 2023 and head doctor when the mistake was made, remains as the first team's medical head, but the Croatian now acts as the overall head.
It was Mihic who contacted Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet to ask if he could see Mbappé because the Frenchman, after playing almost two months in pain, was desperate and angry after playing three matches without knowing his injury and after being forced in January at the club's explicit request in the midst of the team's results crisis following Xabi Alonso's departure. "I felt frustrated," he said on Monday, in statements that coincided with the information about the diagnostic error.
This exclusive is damaging Segura's image, who was in charge until Mihic's return, and that of Real Madrid, but the club remains silent waiting for the storm to calm down.