‘She is a victim too’: Footballer ‘traumatized’ after links to teammate attack
Paris Saint-Germain women's player Aminata Diallo is said to be 'traumatized' after she was linked to the violent assault on teammate Kheira Hamraoui in which she was pulled from a car and beaten with an iron bar by masked men.
Diallo – who was driving Hamraoui home from a PSG team dinner at the time of the attack – was taken into police custody on November 10, several days after the assault.
It was initially suspected that she may have been involved in arranging the attack because both women playing in the same position for their club and the French national team.
However, the 26-year-old was soon released from police custody without being charged – and according to a report by The Athletic, she is understood to have been deeply affected by the rumors of her involvement in the crime.
"She wasn’t injured like Kheira but she is a victim too," the publication quoted a source close to the situation as sauing.
"She was traumatized."
Diallo's legal counsel, Mourad Battikh, informed the media that she had had been pushed against the steering wheel during the attack while being punched and verbally threatened.
The report reiterated the impact that the incident has had on the entire PSG women's team.
Club officials had a request to postpone their clash on November the 14th with rivals Lyon rejected, and also arranged for independent psychologists to assess the impact that the attack and ensuing rumors had on the squad.
Paris Saint-Germain had kept clean sheets in each of their previous ten games but lost 6-1 to Lyon and had Ashley Lawrence sent off after 26 minutes.
"It’s ruined our mental state," PSG coach Didier Olle-Nicolle said at the time. "We were suffering psychologically, morally – it wasn’t easy to hear about nothing but the incident.
"[In the match], as soon as there was a mistake, we realized there was a lot of mental fatigue – nobody was able to respond.
"This result was not against the real PSG team. The psychologists found the group to be very, very, very affected by what had happened."
Additional reporting on Friday suggested that Hayet Abidal, the wife of former Barcelona sporting director Eric Abidal, has become a suspect after he reportedly engaged in an extra-marital affair with Hamraoui – although this speculation has yet to be confirmed by official channels.
Hayet Abidal's lawyer confirmed on Friday that she had filed for divorce from the former France defender.
