Lucas Hernández arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse

Early Friday, Atlético Madrid defender Lucas Hernández was arrested on suspicion of domestic assault. There is a lot to unpack with a situation this fluid, so let’s go through what we know:

• AS reported that Lucas was arrested at his home in Las Rozas, a municipality situated to the northwest of Madrid. The 20-year-old’s girlfriend placed the call after an incident occurred around 2 a.m.
• Lucas and his girlfriend both were treated and arrested. Lucas did not resist arrest, and his girlfriend was released shortly after her detainment.
• Cadena SER and El Mundo say Lucas was inebriated after a night out at the time of his arrest.
• Lucas appeared in court later Friday and said that he had been having dinner with some of his Atlético teammates and arrived home later than anticipated. He alleged that his girlfriend blamed him before she struck his car and fell, which accounted for the injuries she received.
• Lucas later left the courthouse in Majadahonda. A public prosecutor requested a mutual restraining order, and neither party can contact the other for an unspecified period of time. His girlfriend will reportedly testify on Monday.

At his press conference ahead of Saturday’s game against Leganés, Diego Simeone refused to comment on Lucas’ arrest. After the Frenchman departed the courthouse, Atlético released a three-point statement in which the club condemned domestic violence, but said it would wait until the case was resolved before passing judgement. The statement also reminded supporters that the player is innocent until proven guilty.

In the spirit of that statement, we will withhold judgement on Lucas and his case as we wait for further developments. However, it’s hard to argue that these allegations aren’t troubling. In the meantime, Lucas did not train on Friday, so don’t expect him to feature against Leganés on Saturday.