He didn’t feel anything in his leg, he got a lethal injection before the match and went to fight for the 22nd grand slam title in his career. Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal’s confession of his health at the French Open surprised the world. As fans celebrate his overwhelming will, experts wonder how far he is willing to go for victory.
Even before the clay grand slam began, a Spanish tennis player struggled with chronic pain in his left leg. He limped in the preparatory tournaments, and journalists asked him at any moment if this would jeopardize his journey to the fourteenth Roland Garros trophy.
But he did not allow such a possibility at all. He learned to live in pain, but after describing Sunday’s final, how the doctor always injected anesthetizing analgesics directly into his nerves before the match, so that he could “sleep” his leg during the match, this information flew into all sports headlines around the world. .
“That’s the only way I was able to play. If I didn’t believe I could win the title, I wouldn’t be here,” said the native of Mallorca.
There was then a debate on social networks and experts as to whether the numbing drugs were proof of Nadal’s tremendous will to win, or the act of a tennis-stricken fool who risked his health to succeed.
“Of course it’s not okay. Each such intervention increases the risk of further injury. If the athlete has a muscle torn, it can be completely torn off, because he does not feel the affected area adequately and does not respond to painful stimuli that analgesics dampen,” he described the daily. .cz Chief Physiotherapist of the Central Military Hospital in Prague David Vrbický.
Nadal himself realizes that he cannot continue to play like this, immediately after the triumph in Paris he went to Barcelona, where he had a specialist perform a radio frequency procedure that should help him.
“Repeated spraying can only make the problem worse and, as a result of relieving the affected part of the body, other parts are overloaded. They then increase their risk of damage,” Vrbický explains why it is necessary to act with the Spaniard.
On the other hand, as a physiotherapist, such actions of athletes do not surprise him. He himself has extensive experience, he regularly took care of the locomotor system of the Czech team at the Olympic Games. HC Sparta Praha is currently helping the under-17 hockey team.
“It’s nothing special. But you have to look at the whole problem comprehensively. The top athlete has his body as a production tool. It only serves him for a while, so he tries to make the most of his potential to secure himself in the future. influences such as the fulfillment of contracts with sponsors, pressure from the media and other surroundings, “says the physiotherapist.
In addition, the human body gets more and more through professional sports. Czech tennis players, who were unusually decimated by their injuries in Paris this year, also know their stuff. Markéta Vondroušová did not even go to the clay grand slam due to a operated wrist.
“Everything is accelerating, it is played at a faster pace with more aggressiveness and strength. When we look at the past, it was not customary for teenagers to appear so often in top sports,” says Vrbický.
The situation in Czech tennis is characteristic. Whether they are sisters Brenda and Linda Fruhvirt, Linda Nosková, Nikola Bartůňková, Sára Bejlek or the fresh junior grand slam winner Lucie Havlíčková. A whole host of tennis players who are already shining among the adults, before reaching adulthood.
This is one of the reasons why they may experience body fatigue before Nadala-type matadors, who are now 36 years old.
“Of course, the care of athletes is also developing, on the other hand, the human body has its limits and if you do not respect them for a long time, the body will logically defend itself. “urges Vrbický.
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