Václav Cerny is still having a hard time with what happened to Abdelhak Nouri. The FC Twente attacker has not visited his friend, who suffered serious and permanent brain damage as a result of a cardiac arrest on 8 July 2017. “I still have a hard time with it,” Cerny says in the online talk show FootballTime.
Cerny joined Ajax’s youth academy in 2014 at the age of sixteen and then played with Nouri for three years. “There were always three of us, Donny van de Beek, Appie and I,” says the Czech winger. “Always renew contracts together, moved on to Jong together and then to the first. The click was really unbelievable on the field, but also off the field.”
Cerny hasn’t visited him since Nouri went into cardiac arrest four years ago. “I’ve handled it very differently from all the other guys who were close to him. Every time I saw someone from his family I tried to ask for updates and then I want to know everything. I’m still having a hard time if I have to talk about it. I couldn’t stand to see him. I understand that guys have handled it differently by being there, I was actually the only one who did it this way.”
It goes without saying that Nouri will forever be in the heart of Cerny, who has nearly recovered from a serious knee injury and is currently training individually on the pitch with a physiotherapist. “He goes never never from my heart. I also have a large picture of the two of us at home and that goes too never never gone.”
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