Southampton midfielder Oriol Romeu has revealed he is targeting some sort of revenge when his side travel to Leeds United after a nightmare night when he last played at Elland Road. The Spaniard will be returning to Leeds for the first time since he sustained a season-ending knee injury at the ground in February 2021.
Romeu fractured his ankle, which required surgery and ruled him out for the rest of the 2020/21 campaign. It completed a miserable night for Saints as they were beaten 3-0 by Leeds, which was a seventh defeat in eight games at the time for Ralph Hasenhuttl's side.
Saints will now be looking to avoid slipping towards a similar run of defeats, having lost their last three Premier League matches - and four in all competitions. But Romeu is setting his sights on a very different feeling leaving Leeds tomorrow, with the 30-year-old keen to banish the memories of his last visit to West Yorkshire.
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"That time was quite frustrating. I was enjoying it a lot and I was feeling really well," he told Hampshire Live when recalling the last time he went to Elland Road with Southampton. "Then that injury came - three months out and the season finished. It’s a good chance to go there, get a win and get the feeling of the bad way that I left last time now the other way round – that would be ideal."
"It’s good that also, going back to the injury, that I have been able to come back and not have any more issues and compete again for a good amount of games – and feel physically strong and ready again.
"During the injury it was more like structuring again and setting up new goals and seeing how I could get back in the best way possible. It’s always hard because you don’t see yourself as close as you would love to play again.
"But you have to always be a bit humble to say ‘right, I’ve got to do these exercises because that’s going to allow me in three months’ time to play in a better way’. That’s a challenge that you have to face and you have to go through – but that’s me alongside the physios and everyone around the club doing a very good job during the recovery. That’s why I got the chance to come back and not have any more issues.
"That was my main goal this season and I have been able to achieve it. Now it’s just a matter of finishing the season in the best way possible."
