Silvia Navarro, a week ago at the International Tournament of Spain RFEBM / JL RECIO (RFEBM / JL RECIO)
It looked bad and the diagnosis confirmed it: goalkeeper and handball captain, Silvia Navarro (Valencia, 43 years old), suffered a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament and medial meniscus of her left knee. She will be operated on in the next few days and her discharge could take around seven or eight months, according to the Spanish federation’s medical services. The fatal action happened just before halftime in the Guerreras’ European debut against Montenegro (lost 30-23). After a Balkan shot that landed inside, a bad knee twist caused the injury to the goalkeeper, who went straight to the bench, barely supporting his leg and sounding the alarm with gestures of pain.
Coach José Ignacio Prades decided not to call anyone for now and move on with Merche Castellanos (Ciudad Real, 34 years) and Maddi Aalla (Plentzia, Vizcaya, 25 years). The former, who has 76 caps to her tally and has played a more prominent role since last year’s World Cup, will carry the weight of Spain’s goal against the latter, who have barely made 11 appearances for the senior team and are making a superb debut in the league (it was one of the failures this Saturday). Both play in the Spanish league: Castellanos on the Costa del Sol in Malaga and Aalla at Bera Bera in San Sebastian.
The news of Silvia Navarro’s health deepens the team’s bad feelings after a disappointing game against Montenegro in which they were outplayed from start to finish, lacking ideas in attack and underplayed in defence. His next appointments in the European Championship are this Monday against Poland and Wednesday against Germany (both at 8:30 p.m. and at Teledeporte). Of the four teams in each group, three advance to the second stage, adding up points against teams that also qualify. Obtaining this ticket is a minimum target for selection.
Lo will have to struggle without his main goalkeeper, a pillar still on the pitch and a benchmark out, in a dressing room with plenty of youth. Navarro added his 249th game with the Spanish team this Saturday, fourth in the rankings after Marta Mangué (301), Cristina Gómez (277) and Carmen Martín (250), who made public this Friday that he was out of the team had withdrawn. The Valencian goalscorer made his debut with the absolute goal in 1998 and since 2010 he has not missed a major tournament between European Championships, World Cups and matches. In total he collects 16 in a row. During that time, four of the five medals the Warriors have achieved in history have been suspended: Olympic Bronze (2012), World Bronze (2011), World Silver (2019), and European Silver (2014).
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