Aleksa Avramovic on Borisa Simanic: “He is a true hero”

The internet World Cup momentarily paused to acknowledge Borisa Simanic, the forward representing Serbia, who tragically lost one of his kidneys after sustaining an injury during a game against South Sudan.

“A really harmless situation at first,” Aleksa Avramovic said. “Professor Gaga Radovanović explained to me how rare this case is. If that situation happened again now, it probably wouldn’t end with such an injury. And really, we already talked about it. He is a true hero. Borisa is someone who really united us and brought us together.

“And in the most difficult and critical moment for him, he managed to send us a message, while he was fighting for his life, and he remembered that we were playing in the quarterfinals… Now, I shudder when I think about it. That gave us the biggest motivation to run out onto the floor.”