Didier Drogba’s compatriot Serge Aurier had not earned any praise for himself for a long time as he had been hitting the front pages of the newspapers for his indiscipline and bad temper only.
But, he was a hero last evening as he prevented the demise of an opponent player by showing great alertness.
Doumbia was the name of the player who plays in the centre of the field for Mali and was on the receiving end of a tackle versus Cote d’ivoire.
As he fell down unconscious, his tongue got into a position that there was no air passing through his mouth. It was getting dangerous for him by the second, but, it was at that point that Aurier came to the rescue.
He turned Doumbia towards himself and put his hand into his mouth to get the tongue in the right position and ensure that the passage of the air was possible again.
Each second was valuable there and any time wasted could really have been fatal, but, Aurier understood the situation and he did all that as quickly as it could have been done.
The head coach of the opposition, Alain Giresse, personally conveyed his gratefulness to Aurier and later talked it up in his press conference as well, praising the right back for having that kind of calmness.
In the words of Giresse, “It was only fitting for me to go and thank Serge as he saved a life.”
“You have got to be very, very calm to react like that and to do what’s needed to be done at the time.”
However, Aurier, after that life-saving act of his, came for some flak again in that very match for his disrespectful celebration when Cote d’ivoire struck for the second time in the match.