Maccabi secured a European group phase last night following the 5-1 aggregate victory over FK Panevezys but for Nir Bitton it was an extremely emotional night. The 32-year-old defender who was introduced as a second half substitute at the Haladas stadium in Szombathely, Hungary, made his first return to action since suffering a knee injury in December last year. After the match, Bitton spoke of the 7.5 months he spent on the sidelines and thanked all the staff members who supported him on the way to recovery.
“I am delighted the coach gave me that opportunity as this was a small gift after seven and a half months of daily hard work. I am very happy and emotional” Bitton said.
He then thanked the entire medical staff that helped him on the way to recovery: “This entire recent period was coordinated with the coach and the medical staff to introduce me at the right moment. He (Lazetic) spoke with me yesterday and informed me that of the result would allow he would bring me on. I would really like to pay tributes to the medical staff at Maccabi Tel Aviv. By far the best medical staff in Israel without a shadow of a doubt. Starting with the doctor (Dr. Dror Lindner) who besides the fact that in my opinion is the best doctor in Israel, he is also a unique personality and a person who is really fun to work with, be with and treated by. All the physios who worked under him and with me throughout this challenging period also need more than a mention. Sagiv (Mizrahi) who in the first 3 months I saw him more than my wife and kids, and Ravid (Atias) who I later worked on the pitch with as well as Yossi Zigdon who supervises everyone. Yoni (Hernowitz), Amiram (Muyal), Snir (Kunik), Ofir (Mann) and please forgive me if I forgot anyone as I don’t have enough words of gratitude to thank them all. Besides being top professionals, they are all amazing people who are always approachable as they all supported me even when I had tough days and there were plenty. I would like to say thank you to all of them as I really appreciate them all. That is it now the season is starting.”
Ahead of next week’s fixture schedule that starts off with a Toto Cup Semi Final against Bnei Sakhnin and continues with the Europa League Playoff, Bitton added: “We have Backa Topola in the next round but first we have Bnei Sakhnin because when you are at a club like Maccabi Tel Aviv you want to win every possible title. As far as we are concerned we have the Toto Cup Final on Sunday which is a great chance to reach the final and challenge for another trophy.”
Bitton and the team will return to Israel after a 10-day spell which was spent abroad between the first leg in Lithuania and the return leg in Hungary as he reflected on the return home: “First I would like to return to my kids and my wife. We haven’t seen them for a long while and missed our families a lot. To return to Bloomfield after such a long period would be exciting and fun. Obviously we would like to play our European matches infront of our fans but sadly there are more important things in life and we must play and deal with what we have.
At the moment these seem like trivial issues as we try make everyone as happy and as proud as we possibly can so let’s just pray for these days to be over”.
