Cole worried about impatient Madrid fans over Hazard

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:47 CDT
• 3 min read

Former Chelsea and Lille attacking midfielder Joe Cole says he fears that Real Madrid fans will lose patience with Eden Hazard after the Belgian suffered yet another injury.

In the summer of 2019, Hazard joined Real Madrid for an initial fee of £88m [€100m], becoming the latest Galactico at the Santiago Bernabeu.

However, his career in the Spanish capital is yet to take off, with a flurry of injury and fitness issues hampering his attempts to put together any kind of meaningful run of form to match the heights of his talent at Chelsea.

Hazard injury record – June 2019 to present

Hazard has now suffered another injury, hurting his hamstring in Real Madrid’s defeat against Alaves at the weekend.

Cole, a former team-mate of the Belgian at Lille, fears that the notoriously unforgiving fans at Real Madrid will lose patience with the forward if he keeps being sidelined.

“It has been a tough time for Eden. It is an example that no matter how good you are, if you are not fit then you can’t do it on the pitch and it won’t work,” Cole said.

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“For Eden, his body has just let him down in his two years there. He is a great player and one of the best players in the world when he is fit and he has come off again with a muscle injury.

“It is disappointing because I was so excited to see him pull on that Real Madrid shirt and just join the list of the great players they have had over the years and it just hasn’t worked for him.

“I think come January, it might not be done for him, but I think he will need a run of games to show his quality finally. I think Real Madrid are notoriously impatient with their fans and owners so I feel sorry for him. He has just not been able to show it.”

Since moving to the Santiago Bernabeu, Hazard has started just 17 times in the league, scoring two goals and assisting a further three.