Diogo Jota’s physio has revealed the tragic footballer’s final hours as he insisted the Liverpool star was not partying in the run up to the late-night fireball smash.
Respiratory physiotherapist Miguel Goncalves had been working with Jota just five hours before the deadly crash, after he suffered a little-known issue called a pneumothorax – or collapsed lung.
He had bravely played through his condition, risking making it worse by delaying surgery from May until after Portugal’s Nation’s League victory against Spain earlier this month.
The striker and his younger brother Andre were travelling across northern Spain in his acid green £180,000 Lamborghini Huracan when tragedy struck.
His funeral will start tomorrow, with the wake taking place in São Cosme at 3pm, with the funeral at 10am on Saturday. It will be held at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar, half an hour from his home city of Porto where two weeks ago he married childhood sweetheart Rute in a Catholic service packed with family and friends.
Jota and his brother were on their way to catch a ferry back to England, after he was warned flying would be a risk to his health. A Brittany Ferries service from the port city of Santander to Plymouth left at 4pm today, arriving in Devon at 11.15am on Friday.
Goncalves, who works at Hospital São João, in Porto, said he had last seen Jota at dinner time, at around 8.30pm, and were planning to drive at night because it was cooler. He strongly denied rumours that they had been partying, calling his patient an ‘unparalleled professional’.
In a tragic insight into the footballer’s final days the physio said he was ‘excited, confident in his recovery and enthusiastic’ for the upcoming season.
‘I said goodbye to him and his brother, Andre, at around 8:30 p.m. His brother was a great companion and decided to go with him, to accompany him on the trip, and that way they would also spend more time together,’ Goncalves told Portuguese outlet Record.
