Dortmund's Marc Bartra Speaks Out About Bus Attack, "The Longest and Hardest 15 Minutes of My Life"

After a horrifying bomb attack on the Dortmund team bus on Tuesday, Marc Bartra was sent to the hospital to recover from a broken wrist and remove glass that had became embedded in his arm from the series of explosions. On Friday, the Dortmund defender wrote from his Instagram account that the attack was "the longest and hardest 15 minutes of my life."

The explosions are still under investigation, and the motivations behind the attack are still unclear, though three identical letters claiming responsibility and demanding a withdrawal of Germany's military force from Syria were found near the location of the attack. On Thursday, German prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for a 26-year-old Iraqi suspect, allegedly linked to ISIS, although authorities have made no formal connection between ISIS and the attack.

In Bartra's lengthy Instagram post, he requested, "The only thing I ask, THE ONLY THING, is for us to live—EVERYONE—in peace and to leave behind the wars."

Here's how the rest of his post started (translated via Google Translate):

"Today I received the hospital visit that made me happiest. They are my everything, the reason I struggle to overcome obstacles and this has been the worst of my life, an experience I would not want for anyone in this world.

The pain, the panic and the uncertainty of not knowing what was going on, or how long it would last … were the longest and hardest 15 minutes of my life.

I want to tell you all this: I think that the shock of these past few days is decreasing more and more and at the same time, each day adds the desire to live, to fight, to work, to laugh, to cry, to feel, to love, to believe, to play, to train, to continue to enjoy my people, loved ones, companions, my passion, to defend, to smell the grass before the game and to motivate me."

Various coaches have spoken out about their fear for the safety of Dortmund's players that day, and while the worst-case scenario didn't come to pass, Bartra's injury aside, the uncertainty of the moment caused the team a tremendous amount of panic. Bartra, at least, found a way to end his note on a positive.

"These days, when I look at my wrist, bruised and swollen, you know what I feel? Joy. I look at it with joy because I think of what damage they wanted to do to us, and all that happened was this."