Etienne Vaessen repeats this in an extensive interview on Tuesday Algemeen Dagblad that he doesn’t blame Brian Brobbey. The Ajax striker had a violent collision with the RKC Waalwijk goalkeeper on September 30 and had to recuperate for six weeks. Vaessen also mentions a nice gesture from Brobbey’s family after the much-discussed incident.
Vaessen is also grateful to the RKC team doctor, who cleared his airway, which was blocked by his tongue, in time. “I am eternally grateful to them for that. Some people say that the doctor did not have to resuscitate. That is nonsense. Even if he had broken my chest, I am glad he did it.”
The RKC goalkeeper returned under the bar on Saturday against Go Ahead Eagles, after a period of considerable stress. The first two weeks in particular were very difficult. “Then I was only at home, every now and then I walked around the garden. Sometimes people passed by and they said: ‘You keep saying the same thing’. I was a kind of zombie, I wasn’t myself at all.”
Brobbey
Vaessen also didn’t want to go outside at all, afraid of having to keep telling the same story to people on the street. On the other hand, he appreciates the flow of fruit baskets, flowers and cards. “That has given me a lot of support. I have also been in contact with Brian Brobbey, I don’t blame him at all. His family also sent me a fruit basket.”
Etienne Vaessen does not blame Brian Brobbey.
The collision clearly leaves its mark on Vaessen, who viewed the images of the collision with Brobbey on his phone a few days later. “There is a photo of the doctor resuscitating me, he has his hands on my chest. So I don’t remember anything about that moment, but that photo came back all the time at night. I slept very poorly. I kept dreaming that I… out would go or had a heart attack,” is how he describes the most troubled moments.
The naturally introverted Vaessen eventually turned to a mental coach. What followed was EMDR therapy, to reduce the impact of terrible events. “I also had a lot of trouble with everyone seeing me as that goalkeeper who was being resuscitated. Partly because of that therapy, I now think: I don’t care what people think, I’m going for it.”
Counting blessings
Vaessen says he has an angel on his shoulder. Especially because he was stabbed nine years ago as a security guard at the Media Markt in Breda. “A good friend of mine already said: ‘You are a cat. You have nine lives. You now have seven left,'” concludes the goalkeeper who returned to RKC.