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Decline of Ronaldo Can injuries mean the best is already over?
Posted: Tuesday November 23, 1999 11:16 AM
Alarming as it may sound, we may have seen the best of Ronaldo on the football pitch -- and he is still only 23. His latest injury setback has him sidelined for at least two months. The Brazilian's Italian club Internazionale of Milan told "World Sport" on Monday that he will need one month of total rest and that they don't expect him to return to their side until February next year. The timing couldn't be more brutal or damaging. Ronaldo was slowly climbing his way back to the top with Inter after a year-and-a-half of mental and physical torment. There were signs in his mood, attitude and play that the sublime skills of his recent past were not going to be lost forever. In the last few weeks, a sending off in the Milan derby and a wasted trip to Australia in a club versus country disagreement slowed him up. Now a right knee injury has brought his footballing play to a standstill once more. And it has many experts within the game questioning whether he can now ever truly recapture the form which won him FIFA World Footballer of the Year title twice (1996 and 1997). At 23, maybe, just maybe, we have already seen the best of Ronaldo. The Inter captain and superstar striker said that after all that happened last year, he was finally starting to feel good again. Now he is at a loss for words, saying only that he's "incredibly unlucky" and that "nothing can go right" for him.
The doom and gloom is understandable. Ronaldo feels he has suffered enough in his still short career. The World Cup final was the catalyst for last season's problems. He suffered a stress-related illness on the day of the July 1998 final against France, was left off the team sheet, then hastily returned to it just minutes before kick off. Ronaldo told us earlier this year that he made the final decision to play. France won 3-0, Ronaldo and team were dismal and a major inquest followed. The world wanted to know, what really happened to Ronaldo that day? What followed for the Brazilian icon was a form of soccer hibernation. Tendonitis of the knees saw him miss massive chunks of the Serie A season in Italy and miss key action in the Champions League. There were suggestions the mental scars of the World Cup experience were as much to blame for his absence as tendonitis, although Inter's doctor told us this was not the case. Either way, Ronaldo's shining star was falling fast from his once heavenly sky. Could this injury ground it for good? Inter will say "no". Brazil will agree. Ronaldo will also concur. But there are just as many skeptics as there are believers. He can unquestionably return from this injury to play a significant part in Inter's title march. But, under constant and intense media glare, under the weight of massive expectations and shouldering a growing injury burden, it will take a phenomenal effort from the man once dubbed the next Pele to recapture his former glory. Ronaldo may never again come even close to being mentioned in the same breath as such legends. Phil Jones is a co-host of "World Sport," the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International.
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