INGLEWOOD, California, July 10 (Reuters) - Tears streamed down Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' face as he sat on the bench with a leg injury during the second half of Friday's World Cup quarter-final against Spain.
But after his team's 2-1 loss, the 34-year-old was trying to console his replacement Senne Lammens who was sent on after 71 minutes, but could not hold on to a low strike by Pau Cubarsi and Spain substitute Mikel Merino pounced for an 86th-minute winner.
"Senne, obviously, I gave him a big hug," Courtois told reporters. "I know, for goalkeepers, this is a s*** feeling, and he's a great goalkeeper, and he will only get stronger from this."
Courtois said he had felt a twinge as he launched a long kick early in the second half.
“I felt something here in my muscle. Then, I did some saves, I felt okay, so I thought, okay, we'll continue. Then I kicked again long and I felt it a bit more."
The decision for him to leave the field was made by team manager Rudi Garcia.
"Obviously, I wanted to continue, but yeah, the coach wanted someone 100%, so okay, that's his decision. I wanted to try to play maybe five, 10 more minutes to see, because in goal I was feeling good.
"I was making the saves, and I was not disturbed to make those saves, and I was only disturbed to kick long. So that's the decision of the coach, and that's not a problem."
Garcia bemoaned the loss of Courtois as a key moment for Belgium.
"Losing him during the game - that was a hard hit to take," Garcia said. "When you start racking up the years you need to always be at 100% of capacity. Because if you are not... it can be problematic."
"Thibaut was there to keep the ball out of the net, but unfortunately to beat a team of this calibre... the stars weren't aligned."
(Additional reporting by Leela de Kretser, editing by Ed Osmond)
