Deulofeu: "I'm now a complete player. I've had a lot of experience around the world - in Italy, Spain, England - and you can take some of the best things from every club."
Monday 11 May 2020 23:55, UK
Gerard Deulofeu says messages of support from Sergio Ramos and Andres Iniesta have given him added motivation as he recovers from a serious knee injury.
The Watford winger was carried off during his side's shock 3-0 win over Liverpool just weeks before the Premier League was suspended, after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament and tearing meniscus in his right knee.
Deulofeu had surgery at the beginning of March and has been living with his physio in Barcelona for the last two months where he's been training twice a day.
"The rehab is perfect," Deulofeu told Sky Sports. "Every day is much better and every day I can do more, my knee is much stronger.
"I don't know when I'm going to be back playing, but what I do know, is I want to be back 100 per cent and healthy.
"I don't want to be back at 50 or 70 per cent because my career will be long, maybe 10 or 12 more years - so to come back one or two months earlier - I don't want to make a mistake. It was a big injury and I want to do things right.
"I received a lot of messages from big teams, big players like Sergio Ramos and Andres Iniesta, I'm really proud about that because in that time I got to see the quality of the people around me."
Deulofeu's quality was hard to ignore before the injury. Watford's 'magic man' had been directly involved in nine of their 27 goals this season - with four goals and five assists.
Without his contribution, Watford would be eight points worse off than they are now, which would leave them on 19 points - bottom of the table and six points from safety.
"I'm now a complete player," he added. "I've had a lot of experience around the world - in Italy, Spain, England - and you can take some of the best things from every club.
"We've been playing well since Nigel [Pearson] came in and personally I was playing well, doing good things in attack.
"Nigel likes my power. We did a lot of counter-attacks with Ismaila [Sarr] and me which was very good for the team.
"I can create a lot for my team and I'm helping them this year, so let's see if we can finish our objectives of staying in the Premier League."
While the resumption of the Premier League remains uncertain, Deulofeu has been in constant dialogue with his teammates throughout his recovery process.
"I've been keeping in touch with the manager and my team-mates, I've been asking questions as I want to know what they are doing and what's happening there," he said.
"I've also been talking to [Dani] Ceballos at Arsenal and Hector Bellerin and they are going to start to train individually, so let's see if the Premier League will return.
"In my opinion it's a tough period because the players are safer at home. Let's see what happens."
