186 long days have passed, which is just over six months, but Isco Alarcón has recovered the contagious smile that has brightened the entire Real Betis this Monday morning. The Malaga playmaker had been announcing good feelings in order to be able to shorten the planned deadlines and try to return to the playing fields in January, without yet giving up playing a few minutes before the end of 2023. Today he has taken a firm step on that exciting path, stepping the grass of the Luis del Sol Sports City, still apart from the rest of his teammates but finally next to his best friend: the soccer ball.
Betis trained this Monday, returning to work after enjoying two days of rest taking advantage of the league break due to the national teams’ commitments, and in the session several things caught our attention: on the one hand, the absence of Héctor Bellerín and Diego Llorente, still limping from his ailments; on the other, the large group of homegrown players, with three midfielders willing to solve the deficit of personnel in the midfield; and, also, the presence of Aitor Ruibal and Sergi Altimira in full physical condition.
However, as the club’s media have highlighted through their different profiles on social networks, the smile of the day has come from the images of Isco Alarcón, already very close to working with Manuel Pellegrini’s team. The one from Arroyo de la Miel is already touching the ball, in a gesture that shows that everything is indeed going at a very good pace. The team awaits you with open arms. And the fans, even more so, because the desire to see his partnership with Lo Celso is enormous.
“Being prudent, perhaps in a month I can be training normally.. Looking forward to playing, I miss it a lot. In the end it was in May, it was for two months, three months, in the end it will be six and it has been longer than we expected. I hope I can play before the end of the year.. That will mean that things are going well,” said Isco himself last week, when he went to Madrid to collect an award at the gala organized by the newspaper Mark to distribute the prizes for the 23/24 season. The brilliant Betis player, in line with his extensive list of games in which he has been chosen MVP, was awarded the trophy for the fans’ favorite player.