Ariel Lugasi is back running on a repaired knee just as his club prepares to run out in the top flight again, and the 21-year-old is candid about what it took to get here. "I matured mentally, it wasn't simple going through what I did," he told ONE in an interview ahead of Maccabi Petah Tikva's return to Ligat Ha'al.
The setback that shaped his year came in a match against Kfar Saba, when Lugasi scored a goal for Petah Tikva only to go down moments later with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Surgery followed, and with it close to a year on the sidelines.
Rehabilitation stretched across roughly ten months of double training sessions, gym work and pitch drills, during which he added five to seven kilograms of muscle. Lugasi credited the club's medical staff and physiotherapists for getting him through it: "They helped me tremendously... that's behind me now."
The physical rebuild, he said, was only part of the battle. Watching teammates and peers continue to progress while he was stuck in recovery weighed on him. "I saw everyone succeeding, maybe that created unnecessary pressure," he admitted, adding that being back on the grass was itself the best remedy: "The best psychologist is being on the grass."
Lugasi has already made his return, featuring in a Toto Cup fixture against Tiberias as Petah Tikva ramped up their pre-season programme. He is wary of the hype building around his comeback. "I hear a lot that people say this is my year. I'm not looking at anyone else," he said, insisting he wants to prove himself without letting expectation weigh him down.
Before the injury derailed his progress, Lugasi was one of the standout names to emerge from Israel's celebrated youth national team under coach Ofir Haim, reaching the final of the European U19 Championship - where Israel lost only to England - and also featuring for the age group in Argentina's Mondialito tournament.
His path from that youth breakthrough to a regular first-team role at Maccabi Petah Tikva stalled once the injury hit, but the club's own trajectory has moved forward: after finishing among the top two in Liga Leumit, Petah Tikva have been promoted back to Ligat Ha'al for the 2026/27 season, giving Lugasi's recovery an extra layer of urgency and opportunity.
He sounded far from finished making his case. "There's still so much more to see, this isn't even a fraction of what I can do," Lugasi said, closing an interview that reads less like a farewell to a difficult year than a warning to the rest of the division.
