Gary Rodriguez in La Gazzetta: “Lucescu did everything for me to return to PAOK. Injuries killed me at Olympiacos.”

– With Mitchell you run again, right?

“Mainly with Mitchell… I got back into the team because I played more, I was better but I was also having injury problems at that time. I'm back, I'm out, I'm back, I'm out. I wasn't myself that season due to injuries. But I have a very good relationship with Mitchell because whenever I was available to play, he always put me on the field.”

– What happened that you had so many injuries?

“I don’t know what happened. I have never had as many injuries in my career as I did at Olympiacos. Of course I always have some muscle injuries from time to time because I am a fast runner on the pitch. But at Olympiacos I had a lot of problems. Last year I was feeling the pressure of not playing. I wasn't feeling well, I was always at home, I was in a negative mood, I was crying. My self-confidence was destroyed in my last year at Olympiacos. At first it was a great feeling. When I played everyone at the club was happy with me With my performance, we also won the championship, but the second season was a disaster.

There was a little bit of pressure on me, a little bit of pressure on the doctors to come back faster. We didn't recover properly and when I came back I got injured again. The problem is that I was always injured in the same place! Those injuries… killed me that season. There was no problem with my appearance. I was also subjected to pressure from social media and journalists regarding my injury.”

– I was in bad shape…

“I was so depressed about all this. I was afraid to run at one point. I was thinking about how to run in training again. It was a disaster!”

– In general, what do you think went wrong for Olympiacos?

“Enough happened, we took a lot of footballers, we changed three to four coaches. There was no time for anyone, there were a lot of injuries, it was really difficult. There were no relationships between us. The first year was good but the second was “Very bad.”

– What is it like sharing the dressing room with Marcelo and James?

“It was really great. Olympiacos is a great club. It's great to be there but in this season everything was bad. But when you have players like that by your side, you can only improve and gain confidence, especially for younger footballers. They are examples.” “Fantastic but mistakes have been made this season as a team. They are legends, they have a huge career and it was a real honour for me.”

-What were they like as the characters?

“They were very good characters. They made you laugh, they made you feel comfortable in the dressing room. They have a long career and played with top footballers, so they have greater demands on players, but they can't be everywhere like Real Madrid players, for example.” Example (laughs). They were great people and I never had any problems, and to this day we still talk via text.”