Chapter 1016: Without Higo on the Pitch, Getting Destroyed by Stuttgart?!

The next two days passed quickly.

It wasn’t like Higo didn’t have any activity to do, but during that time, all he was asked to do was get proper rest and not force his fingers to do any excessive movement that would jeopardize his recovery.

The first day was quite easy, as he just played with his phone all the time. It was just a normal day off after the game was over, so this wasn’t a special occasion at all.

On the second day, though, Higo started to become restless.

He couldn’t stay still in his own home, not knowing what to do that didn’t require him to use his fingers actively, as the doctor had instructed.

Wanting to play the football game? That would put his fingers under strain.

Wanting to read a book? Well... He was not an avid reader in the first place.

Wanting to go out? He couldn’t really do that since the pandemic was still there.

It didn’t help that the team’s official social media posted that the players were back in the training session once again, and honestly, Higo couldn’t help but feel left out right now.

’Fuck! This is going to kill me...’ Higo couldn’t help but groan, letting himself slump on his couch lazily.

Fortunately, this only lasted for two days, because a day after that, he could finally go to the training ground for the rehabilitation plan.

The moment he arrived at the training ground, everyone greeted him politely, asking in concern about his current situation and when he would go back to the pitch again.

"Don’t worry, my injury isn’t that bad," Higo answered with the same level of politeness. "In fact, I am allowed to do light training today, and once my fingers get better, I will be able to get back to the pitch and kick everyone’s ass again!" He joked around.

Once he found Guzman, the boy finally started his rehabilitation plan.

Well, the rehabilitation was quite easy. At least, it wasn’t as painful as when he got a shoulder injury last summer.

This time, the Filipino doctor just changed the taping on his fingers and started to introduce a gentle range-of-motion exercise like slowly curling his fingers into a loose fist and straightening it out, trying to prevent the fingers from stiffening too much.

Other than that, he was even allowed to join the team for light workouts and conditioning exercises, making sure that once his fingers were ready, the boy would be able to jump onto the pitch immediately.

Just two days after he had followed the recovery plan, the boy felt quite good about his situation, knowing that he was so close to being back again.

Unfortunately, time was not his friend, as he couldn’t follow the team in the away game against Stuttgart a week after the derby. The boy had to accept the bitter fact that he could only watch the game on television, as the coach didn’t allow him to join the group on this trip.

"Just wait patiently; you will have your time next. This time, try to trust your teammates a little bit. They are also pros, you know?"

At least, that was what Waldoch said, and Higo had to admit that the man was right.

Even though he still had the arrogance inside him that made the boy think he was the best player on this team, Higo was still conscious enough to realize that the others also made a living in this sport, so there was no way they would crumble the moment he left it.

Unfortunately, he put too much trust in them, as the game somehow turned into a disaster that showed a big difference between the team with and without Higo in it.

Somehow, Stuttgart, a team that was not even famous for their offense, managed to humiliate Schalke with a shocking 5- 1 score.

Yeah, you haven’t heard it wrong.

A fucking 5-1 score!

In Higo’s career, he had never conceded that many goals in a single game, and yet, the moment he left the team, this happened quite brutally.

This showed how big his impact was for the team, as without the boy, it seemed that they had just turned into another mediocre team that would fight for the relegation zone.

The game itself somehow became the biggest stage for Wataru Endo to shine.

Before this, people only knew him as a solid defensive midfielder and the team’s captain, a tough player who was always willing to run to the end of the world if the coach wanted him to do that.

In this game, though, he transformed into a different beast.

The man managed to bag two goals and one assist, and the whole process here was done beautifully.

The first one came from the corner kick scenario, where Mustafi managed to clear the ball away from the penalty box. The second ball fell straight in front of Wataru Endo, and the man didn’t hesitate to swing his right foot with so much power to the back of the net.

The second one came from the same corner-kick scenario. However, this time, Wataru Endo joined the crowd inside the penalty box, and in such a chaotic scene, the ball somehow fell straight onto the defensive midfielder’s foot.

He didn’t even need to think, just using his pure instinct to put the ball into the back of the net. Fahrmann was too distracted by the crowd to move, and in the end, the man could only watch the ball rolling behind him helplessly.

As for the assist, once again, the scenario was almost the same, coming from a cross that was cleared by the defensive line.

This time, Endo beat Hofmann in the aerial duel for the rebound ball, and the header went straight to the penalty box once again, just for Sasa Kaladzic to beat Fahrmann in a one-on-one duel.

What made it worse, though, was that all three goals here happened in the first half, showing how bad the combination of midfielders that Frohling put for the main roster that day was.

No wonder Frohling was so furious about it...