It was before a game against Chelsea in 2017 that Saul Niguez sat down with Sportsmail and told the story of his burst kidney - one that illustrated perfectly what lengths he would once go to at Atletico Madrid to just get in the starting XI.
Saul was in his favoured central midfield position that season and that’s where he started the game against Chelsea. Atletico lost the match 2-1 thanks to a 93rd minute winner from Michy Batshuayi.
They finished third in that Champions League group and they dropped into the Europa League but they won the competition, beating Marseille in the final, again with Saul in midfield.
Chelsea signed Saul Niguez on loan from Atletico Madrid with the option to make it permanent
Saul grew tired of not being played in his preferred midfield role at Atletico Madrid
He got 11 goals that season for club and country and double figures in a campaign looked like becoming the norm as his ability to time runs from midfield and finish well became his signature.
He was just 22-years-old at the time and opened up in that interview with Sportsmail about how a kick from Kyriakos Papadopoulos in a Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen two years earlier had left him peeing blood and contemplating losing a kidney.
He had been through surgery for renal colic the previous season and the kick in the same area had left him needing four days in hospital allowing doctors to drain his kidney and reduce the clot that had formed around the bruise.
He had an internal catheter fitted but problems lasted into the following year and he admitted: ‘When I stopped using the catheter the kidney was still not working. I was given the option of playing for a month and then stopping for a month and so I said: "This is no good. If you can put the catheter in again and I can function normally then let's do that, but if not then just take the kidney out. It's fine. I've got another one".'
He was persuaded never to take such drastic action by Diego Simeone’s then No 2 German Burgos who was well qualified to advise him because he was a kidney cancer survivor.
That Europa League-winning season with warrior Saul back to 100 per cent fully recovered from his career threatening injury was one of his best for Simeone who seemed to be planning to build his midfield around him long term.
Saul started 35 of the club’s 38 league games meaning no outfield player played more minutes in the domestic competition.
But Simeone’s preference for having plenty of central midfielders in his squad has always meant that some have been pushed out into the wide midfield positions to accommodate others.
Saul was flourishing in the heart of midfield for Atletico Madrid after having a kidney scare
But the arrival of Rodri saw him nudged onto the flank with Thomas Partey also in midfield
That season it was Koke shunted to the flank with Saul and Thomas Partey in the middle. But things did not stay that way.
In subsequent seasons it wasn’t so much that Saul underperformed in the middle but that he was better than most at moving out wide. He became a victim of his own versatility.
In the 2018-19 season Rodri was signed from Villarreal and the now-Manchester City midfielder made one of the centre midfield positions his own. Saul’s capacity to adapt meant that often it was Thomas Partey alongside Rodri and Saul and Koke played wide. It was, in effect, a midfield of four central midfielders but two had to start in front of the full-back.
Saul was slowly moving away from positions where he could make those runs and show the finishing
