Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Raul Jimenez has been given the green light to resume his football career. A meeting with a specialist on Tuesday concluded that Jimenez – who fractured his skull in a sickening incident against Arsenal back in November – will be able to return to the field. Wolves have set a timeline for Jimenez to return to match action in pre-season, which rules him out of the final day clash with Manchester United at Molineux on Sunday. The 30-year-old has also been told that he will need to wear protective headgear for the remainder of his career.
In a club statement, Wolves’ club medic
Dr Matt Perry said: “Raul was seriously injured six months ago on 29th November and underwent emergency surgery for a major traumatic brain injury and skull fracture (TBI) at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington. Since then, he has been under the care and supervision of his neurosurgeon at St Mary’s, Miss Sophie Camp, and Professor Tony Belli of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, as well as the medical team at Compton. His skull fracture has now healed well; he will wear a protective headguard to cover the area of bony injury for the remainder of his career, but it is adjudged strong enough for him to return to play with this protection. A brain injury such as concussion can take weeks and months to recover fully and TBI will sometimes leave lasting deficits. It is wonderful to be able to say that Raul has made a remarkable and excellent recovery to date. He has no measurable signs of deficit and is now at the stage when he can contemplate a return to the career he loves; but a degree of caution is still required. Raul has been able to progress from basic fitness work into full competitive training from early March; only holding back on powered heading and aerial duels. He has now received the all clear to start these activities and is physically as fit, strong and agile as ever. Further match-based rehabilitation will start in July and will be tightly controlled initially. This respects the fact that although his recovery appears to be total there is a big step from training to competition. We are hugely grateful to Professor Tony Belli and Miss Sophie Camp with their guidance and advice on his management, and Miss Camp and her colleagues at St Mary’s for the life and career saving surgery in the few hours that followed Raul’s initial injury. We hope and expect that Raul will be able to play a full part in Wolves’ 2021/22 season.”
It has been suggested that Jimenez could compete for Mexico in this summer’s Olympics, which is due to start in late July and run through until early August. Jimenez claimed Olympic gold with his country at London 2012 but it remains to be seen whether he will be given the chance to win another.
