Football fairytale: Perr Schuurs scores three minutes into return after 1043 days

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/schuurs-perr/ARdXOcOJ/"]Perr Schuurs[/a], 26, joined [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/nijmegen/nRluRF0T/"]NEC Nijmegen[/a] as a free agent during the summer. The Dutch centre-half had not played a game since sustaining a severe knee injury on [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/inter-Iw7eKK25/torino-MZFZnvX4/?mid=WzoFxQrf"]October 23rd, 2023[/a], when playing for [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/torino/MZFZnvX4/"]Torino[/a] against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/inter/Iw7eKK25/"]Inter[/a].[/p][p]Schuurs had been working to regain match fitness as NEC reached the UEFA Europa League for the first time since 2009 via the UEFA Champions League qualifiers.[/p][p]On Saturday, Schuurs made his official return to professional football by coming on for [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/nuytinck-bram/2JTqSR5c/"]Bram Nuytinck[/a] in the 80th minute in NEC's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/nijmegen-nRluRF0T/zwolle-r1L5w2EB/?mid=rTCSueHl"]Eredivisie match[/a] against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/zwolle/r1L5w2EB/"]PEC Zwolle[/a], thus ending 1,043 days of hurt.[/p][p]But his return became endlessly sweeter 2 minutes and 48 seconds later, when he headed in a corner from [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/chery-tjarron/dtN3i4T7/"]Tjaronn Chery[/a] and put the final score of 3-1 on the scoreboard in Zwolle.[/p][embed guid="78690f5b-86f7-4eef-90eb-caf109845f22" url="https://x.com/ESPNnl/status/2093806371623903411?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Schuurs started his career in Fortuna Sittard's youth academy and joined Ajax in 2018 after captaining Fortuna to the Eredivisie at 18. In Amsterdam, Schuurs struggled to win a place in the starting XI under Erik ten Hag.[/p][p]The young defender joined Torino in 2022 and became a mainstay in the Italians' defence, but his steady rise came to a crashing halt as he suffered a severe knee injury that required several surgeries. Schuurs and Torino mutually terminated his contract in February 2026.[/p][infobox id="7e3b12a0-8b09-4d80-a9ed-f734b143168f" /][image alt="Perr Schuurs' statistics" id="cab71b0d-3a78-4632-a718-b70dc4b9c568" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="1866ed8f-c710-49de-b605-854e6163e32e" original-width="2160" original-height="2700" /]