The captain of the Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk, Tarás Stepanenko, has taken advantage of his presence in the Catalan capital, where his team will face FC Barcelona tonight in a Champions League match, to visit Vitali Shumei, a Ukrainian soldier injured in the war who He is recovering in a Barcelona hospital.
Stepanenko was accompanied on his visit by Shakhtar’s goalkeeping coach, former goalkeeper Andrí Piatov. Together they have spoken with the soldier’s father, Serguí Shumei, who accompanies his son in the rehabilitation process at the Guttman Institute in Barcelona.
“On the one hand, it is difficult to see our heroes, our fighters, in this state,” said Piatov, who for more than three decades and until his retirement at the end of last season defended the goal of the Ukrainian club.
“But we understand that the club, and first of all his father, give us hope in victory, that we are all in this together, that our nation cannot be defeated,” he added in the presence of Sergei Shumei, the soldier’s father. 35 years old, who did not hide his excitement at the possibility of meeting two Ukrainian soccer stars.
Shakhtar pays all the expenses of Shumei’s rehabilitation process at the Guttman Institute in Barcelona, ??one of the most effective neurorehabilitation centers in the world. The Ukrainian club has also paid for the treatment of wounded Ukrainian soldiers in Israel and the United States.
Vitali Shumei suffered skull fractures in August last year as a result of an explosion near the town of Avdivka, in central Ukraine, the scene of intense fighting to this day. Shumei was manning an anti-aircraft missile system.
After receiving treatment in Ukraine, Shumei was transferred in May of this year to Barcelona, ??where in May he successfully underwent a new surgical operation and gradually recovered his speech and some of his mobility.
