Open words after a serious injury
DFB star Gwinn: “I suffered a lot from it”
Updated on 12/02/2025 – 12:44 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The German captain speaks in a podcast by Robin Gosens about the difficult time after the European Championship injury and why she hid her feelings from the team.
Giulia Gwinn spoke openly about the psychologically stressful time during the European Championships in the summer. The DFB captain injured her knee in the first group game against Poland – but did not leave and instead stayed with the team.
“It was incredibly bad, if I’m honest,” said the 26-year-old in the “Floodlights on!” podcast hosted by national player Robin Gosens. Despite her medial ligament injury in her left knee, she decided to stay with the team in Switzerland. “It was kind of just a function for the team,” Gwinn said. “I suffered a lot from it.”
The FC Bayern Munich defender was injured in a tackle in her own penalty area and subsequently missed the tournament. She had previously suffered two cruciate ligament tears (2020 and 2022), but this time it was “much, much worse for me than the cruciate ligament tears,” said Gwinn.
It was self-evident for Gwinn that she wanted to fulfill her captaincy role despite the injury, even if she had to put personal pressures aside to do so. “I didn’t show it to the outside world, I tried to wear a mask somehow because it was important to me that the team wasn’t influenced by it, but it was a very, very big fight.”
Even at the moment of the injury, she knew how serious the situation was. “I immediately noticed that my knee was twisting quite badly.” A torn cruciate ligament didn’t feel like that, but she knew immediately: “This tournament will be over for me. And to feel this reality so starkly was the worst thing that could have happened to me. My world collapsed for me.”
This Tuesday evening, Gwinn could win a title with the DFB team for the first time as captain in the Nations League final against Spain in Madrid. After the 0-0 draw in the first leg, everything is still open. Kick-off at the Estadio Metropolitano is at 6:30 p.m. (in the live ticker on t-online). It would be the first title win by a DFB women’s team since the Olympic victory in 2016.