Every eve of the Olympics or the World Cup, there are always athletes who suffer injuries and end up losing the most important contest of their lives. These human dramas are part of the trajectory of those who demand the most from their bodies and end up collapsing at the least propitious moment.
“The body, after a physical activity, is never the same when it started. Even for an athlete, physical activity wears out the body, uses up energy, injures bones and muscles”, says physical educator Luiz Roberto Gonzaga.
In the case of an athlete who takes a hit, suffers a bruise, a contracture or needs a cast on his leg, there is also the time needed for full recovery. And with that comes the danger of losing important competitions.
“A practical example is when a part of the body is cast. What will your body do? To throw that musculature away, to create a certain stiffness. Because he begins to adapt to the lack of mobility. And an athlete cannot lose conditioning, lose mobility”, concludes Luiz Roberto.
Qatar’s pre-World Cup dramas affect even Brazilians. Left-back Guilherme Arana, from Atlético-MG, was quoted to be called up by Tite until he suffered a serious injury to his left knee in September that will keep him out of the field until next year.
The athlete underwent surgery, needed to walk on crutches and saw his dream of participating in a World Cup for the first time turn to dust. “I was a little sad, yes, they are things in life, they are things that only a football player can go through. Many had injuries before the World Cup,” he said in an interview with a radio station in Minas Gerais.
Philippe Coutinho, from Aston Villa (England), also saw his chances of going to his second World Cup end with a muscle injury in his left thigh. Despite having his figure on the Copa album, he is out of Tite’s list. His reaction was published on his Instagram profile: “As you know, I had an injury that kept me off the pitch for a few weeks. I look forward, focused on recovering in the best way and coming back stronger.”
France, a strong contender for the title, has also had two casualties so far. Paul Pogba, from Juventus (Italy), suffered an injury to his right knee, will have to be operated on and will only return to the pitch in 2023. Also on Instagram, the player expressed himself, without hiding his disappointment: “God has another plan for me ”.
Another who saw the body weaken when it couldn’t was the midfielder Kanté, from Chelsea (England). The speedy French player, one of the highlights of Russia’s 2018 winning campaign, suffered a hamstring injury in August. He was unable to recover with physical therapy alone and had to be operated on in October.
Senegal’s good team has two problems on the eve of the World Cup. He lost the side Bouna Sarr, who injured the tendon of the kneecap in his left knee and underwent surgery, and is closely monitoring the situation of the brilliant Sadio Mané, with a bruise on the fibula bone of his right leg. Even with the problem, the coaching staff decided to call him up, believing in a quick and miraculous recovery.
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Such cases are common. Brazil has already lost stars on the eve of the World Cup. Who doesn’t remember Romario’s cut in the call-up for the 1998 World Cup, in France, because of an edema in his calf? Unlike the more polite and resigned players of today, Baixinho started shooting after the cut: “Unfortunately, in the minds of the coaching staff, they didn’t have that patience. They must not have trusted my recovery.” To prove them wrong, Romário returned to the field for Flamengo well before the end of the Cup.
Striker Careca was also left out of the World Cup in Spain, in 1982, and Telê Santana began to trust the number 9 shirt to at least coach Serginho Chulapa. The midfielder Emerson suffered a dislocation in his right shoulder in training, while playing goalkeeper, and was cut from the squad of the penta in 2002.
But there are cases where the effort for recovery is worth it. The ace Zico made a huge effort to be in the World Cup in Mexico, in 1986, after operating on both knees. In 1970, Tostão underwent eye surgery in Houston (United States), because of a detached retina just four months before the World Cup, and did his first training with the ball just two months before his World Cup debut. He returned from Mexico as a three-time champion.
And Ronaldo, in the 2002 World Cup, overcame, after a lot of pain, the rupture of the tendon and ligaments of the knee and a long inactivity of almost two years to get back on his feet: “I worked two and a half years to recover from injuries, and God reserved this special day for me and for Brazil”, he declared after lifting the five-time world champion cup in Yokohama (Japan).
