Norway international defender Omar Elabdellaoui made a sensational comeback to top-level football, more than a year after being left clinically blind when a firework exploded in his eye.
The 30-year-old, who began his career at Manchester City and also played with Harry Maguire and Andy Robertson at Hull City, required 11 surgeries to save his sight after the accident on New Year's Eve 2020.
There were points at which it was not certain that Elabdellaoui would regain his sight, let alone be able to return to professional football.
However, after 432 days away, he was back in Galatasaray's starting line-up for their Super Lig game at Goztepe, playing the full 90 minutes as Domenec Torrent's team picked up their first win of 2022.
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One of the doctors who saw the defender during his road to recovery put Elabdellaoui's chances of recovering his sight at just 5-10%, but he returned to Galatasaray's bench for a game against Kayserispor at the start of February and finally made his return on Monday.
“Because of all the gunpowder my face was burned. I think it was difficult for them to say how bad it was straight away," he explained to The Guardian.
"In one moment I grabbed the doctor to say: ‘Just tell me the truth, tell me how bad it is.’ She said: ‘Your left eye doesn’t look too bad but your right eye, we do not know.’ But the way she said it, I knew it was not good.”
"It was a miracle, like a dream come true," Elabdellaoui said, having received a corneal transplant after several months of treatment and rehabilitation.
"You never think that to see is a dream – you just take that for granted."
"I went through a difficult process. It was a difficult injury. I struggled a lot," he told beIN SPORTS after the game (via Goal ).
"I'm back on the field and doing what I love most. It's my dream come true for the second time. It felt like I started football for the second time."
Galatasaray had been on a difficult run in the league, going six games without a win, but two late goals from former Swansea City striker Bafetembi Gomis gave them a 3-2 victory on Monday.
Elabdellaoui had only joined Galatasaray in the summer of 2020, having returned to Olympiacos after his loan spell with Marco Silva's Hull during the 2016-17 season.
While he never made an appearance for Manchester City's first team, he played under-23 games with the likes of Ben Mee and Loris Karius and was on the bench for a Europa League clash with Juventus.
A number of current and former teammates paid tribute to Elabdellaoui after his comeback, including former Man City colleague John Guidetti and fellow Norwegian international and Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard.
