A scary scene took place at Emirates Stadium on Sunday night, as Arsenal defender David Luiz and Wolves forward Raul Jimenez suffered a nasty clash during an attempt to head a ball following a corner kick.
Jimenez, who got the worst of the blow, was diagnosed with a fractured skull after the collision and was taken to a London hospital and underwent surgery to repair the damage suffered.
Arsenal had won a corner kick in only the fifth minute of yesterday’s match between two teams with European aspirations, and Willian Jose took a kick from the right corner that Luiz came crashing forward to try to head past Rui Patricio into goal.
Unfortunately, instead of finding the ball, his head found Raul Jimenez’s head, who was attempting to defend the play.
A nasty sound was heard in the stadium and on television broadcasts of the match as the players’ heads collided. Luiz and Jimenez both went down to the ground immediately, although Luiz was standing just a few minutes later and returned to play in the rest of the match.
Jimenez was given supplemental oxygen as he remained on the pitch for nearly 10 minutes. He was taken off of the field on a stretcher and rushed to a London hospital, where his skull fracture was identified and diagnosed.
His surgery was successful and Jimenez should undergo a full recovery, but there is no timetable as to when he might return to the field. For now, he’ll focus on simply recovering from one of the nastiest clashes in recent sports history.
