Arsenal midfielder and one of the key characters for the Spanish national team at Euro 2024 and the 2026 World Cup – Mikel Merino, made shocking revelations about the most difficult and dangerous moments in his life and career. In a candid interview for the popular platform The Players’ Tribune The Spanish midfielder returned to the nightmare diagnosis before the World Cup finals and the attack that almost took his life.
„Impossible“: Four months of struggle for the 2026 World Cup
In February, Merino suffered one of the worst blows of his career - a fractured bone in his right foot. Doctors were skeptical and told him that a full recovery would take at least six months. With only four months left until the World Cup, his chances of participating were close to zero.
„Mikel, I'm sorry. "It's impossible," one of the leading specialists tells him directly.
Despite the grim prognosis, Merino begins intensive rehabilitation. His wife Lola, who was pregnant at the time, remains by his side. The midfielder admits that it is her faith that gives him the strength to overcome the pain and perform a true sporting miracle, returning in time for the 2026 World Cup.
The Dortmund attack: "I'm lucky to be alive"
However, this is not the most terrible test facing the football star. In 2017, when he was just 20 years old as a Borussia Dortmund player, he survived a bombing of the team bus before a Champions League match.
„I'm lucky to be alive. I was 20 years old and playing for Borussia Dortmund when they attacked our bus with three bombs while we were travelling to a Champions League match. There was a deafening noise and then I remember the bus almost overturning. I turned around and there was blood on the floor. Smoke, screams“, Merino recalls with horror.
On that fateful night, his teammate Marc Bartra suffered a serious wrist injury from the explosions. Only later did Merino realise how close he himself had come to death:
“I remember that night I was in the hospital waiting for Marc Bartra, whose wrist was badly broken. The next day someone told me that a huge piece of shrapnel had lodged itself in the headrest of the seat next to Marc's. The seat I usually sat in. But that day that seat was empty. My legs were a bit heavy and I sat a little further forward. And maybe that's what saved my life“, the Arsenal midfielder concluded.