{"id":270707,"date":"2025-07-18T00:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T00:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270707\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T00:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T00:49:18","slug":"spain-star-aitana-bonmati-says-shes-mentally-stronger-after-hospital-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/270707\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain Star Aitana Bonmat\u00ed Says She’s Mentally Stronger After Hospital Stay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spain<\/a>‘s opponents at the Women’s European Championship<\/a> won’t want to hear Aitana Bonmat\u00ed <\/a>say she is even better as a player after her recent spell in the hospital, but she is.<\/p>\n

Bonmat\u00ed said Thursday she is feeling “100 percent physically” on the eve of a quarterfinal game<\/a> against host Switzerland<\/a> that will be exactly three weeks since she was hospitalized with viral meningitis.<\/p>\n

“I think this new Aitana is even stronger mentally with the same ambitions,” the two-time defending Ballon d’Or winner said in translated comments. “I reminded myself [of] who I am. I feel very well. \u2026 I’m glad to be here.”<\/p>\n

Bonmat\u00ed was treated in a Madrid hospital before traveling to Switzerland one day later than the rest of the world champion and tournament favorite’s squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was frustrated,” she said at the pregame news conference at the stadium in Bern. “I suffered, I must admit. It was five days before the start of the tournament. What happened was unexpected. I felt super well, physically I was perfect, but I never thought I wouldn\u2019t be here.”<\/p>\n

[MORE: <\/strong>Euro 2025: Spain On Track? Watch Out For France? What Stood Out and What’s Next<\/strong><\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bonmat\u00ed was even well enough to enter from the bench on the second day of Euro 2025, in the 81st minute of Spain’s 5-0<\/a> win over Portugal<\/a>. She came on for the second half of the 6-2<\/a> win against Belgium<\/a>, when the score was 2-1.<\/p>\n

She played the full game in a 3-1<\/a> win over Italy<\/a>, ensuring Spain finished top of its group. The team tied the tournament record of scoring 14 goals in the opening phase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I am happy because the team was super good,” Bonmat\u00ed said. “We played an excellent tournament and now the best part is coming.”<\/p>\n

Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily<\/a>!<\/p>\n

FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience <\/p>\n

\n recommended\n <\/p>\n

Arrow pointing to the leftArrow pointing to the right <\/p>\n

Item 1 of 1<\/p>\n

\"UEFA Get more from the UEFA Women’s EURO Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain‘s opponents at the Women’s European Championship won’t want to hear Aitana Bonmat\u00ed say she is even better…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-270707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114871491994002901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}