"Lights out" - Raul Jimenez recalls horror incident and addresses David Luiz
Wolves striker Jimenez suffered a horrific head injury last season which kept him out of action for months.
Wolverhampton Wanderers star Raul Jimenez has said that David Luiz is not to blame for the serious head injury he suffered last year.
The pair clashed heads when going for the ball during a Premier League meeting between Wolves and Arsenal last November, which resulted in a fractured skull for the Mexican.
Jimenez, who did not play for the remainder of the 2020/21 campaign, made a full recovery and returned to the field of play this season after being out of action for eight months.
Although the striker has said that doctors told him he was lucky to be alive, he harbours no ill will towards Luiz over the incident and insists that the Brazilian should not carry any of the blame for his injury.
“I’ve seen it several times," Jimenez told Mexican station W Radio . "I asked the video people and the social media people at the club if they had different shots of the play.
“One of their players goes to the front post and passes in front of me. If I didn’t take that step, I wouldn’t jump backwards, and I would have jumped in front of him.
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“Jumping backwards, he caught me loose. I take 100 per cent of the blame off David. He was going with the intention of heading the ball – unfortunately, it was on my head.”
The 30-year-old says that he has no memory of the incident or the match itself after fracturing his skull.
“I don’t remember anything. I remember that we arrived at the stadium, that I went out to see the pitch, I went into the dressing room to change and then the lights went out.”
Jimenez returns to the international scene this week as Mexico host Canada in the early hours of Friday morning British time, before two more World Cup qualifiers against Honduras and El Salvador.
Following a compromise between the UK Government and the football authorities, Jimenez will be available to take part in Wolves' next match, which sees them take on Aston Villa.
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