“Federer had something similar and that was the end of him” | Relief

Paris.- June 1, 2017 an inconsolable cry sounds on the second track Roland Garros. A tennis player lies on the ground, crying, covering his face with his hands. He knows he can’t. You know it’s broken. His opponent, the great Juan Martin del Potro, crosses to the other side of the goal and tries to console him, but cannot.

This was the last great game of the Spaniard Nicolás Almagro.. On the day he was 31 and fighting to return to the front line, his Paris clay-court career was cut short by a torn meniscus. He will never be the same again. He was operated on three times, tried to come back, but could not. Less than two years later he hung up his racket for good in his homeland of Murcia. Damn meniscus.

Coincidences of destinies Almagro was in the Eurosport booth this Monday, commentating in Spanish on the match between Novak Djokovic and Francisco Cerundolo.. And when Nole put his hand on his right knee early in the second set, Almagro was clear. “I tore my meniscus in a very similar situation. I was going to take the bad luck against Del Potro, but my knee got stuck. And I noticed a feeling of blockage. The gestures I made were very similar to Djokovic’s,” he said live during the broadcast.It didn’t seem like anything, but when I stood up I felt very unstable and couldn’t continue.“.

Later, Almagro was struck by Djokovic as he flew onto Center Court beat Serundolo in five sets with a huge last setl. However, when Djokovic stopped the painkillers and underwent an MRI, he received a shock of reality: a torn medial meniscus, an injury for which he underwent surgery this Wednesday in Paris.. Goodbye Roland Garros, goodbye number one and goodbye Wimbledon.

“When I saw this, it became clear to me that it was a meniscus. But then I saw him so good in the last set that I started to doubt him. Because I couldn’t move, and he was as if nothing had happened,” Almagro told Relevo by phone as soon as he learned that Djokovic would have surgery. “I think the difference is that I broke it and he has a tearbut you still need to be very careful because it seems like a simple injury, but it’s not.“.

Three operations on the meniscus

Like Djokovic, Almagro underwent surgery two days after the episode at Roland Garros and took two and a half months to return to competition. “I left the hospital after the first surgery, but when I came back I saw that things weren’t going well, so I had another surgery after the US Open and again at Christmas.“, says he was number nine in the ATP rankings in 2011.

“Everything has a deadline. I had two to three months because the knee had to heal and it had to fit. Djokovic needs to remove a piece of the meniscus during arthroscopy, then everything should fit well, and then he needs to strengthen all the muscles of the knee.“, adds Relevo Almagro, champion of 13 ATP tournaments.

At the time of the injury, the Murcian was 31 years old, and his goal was to last a few more years. However, a torn meniscus hastened the goodbye. “I wouldn’t say I retired because of an injury, but after an injury. This certainly helped, but it is true that I gained more weight, my knee began to hurt and my priorities changed.“.

Djokovic’s injury occurred when he was 37 years old. Can he return to his best level? “Ugh,” says Nico Almagro. “I think he won’t be at Wimbledon and we’ll see how things go at the Games if he comes. He doesn’t need to rush because Although this seems like a minor injury, it is not. Look, Roger, he had a similar injury and that was the end of him. He had knee surgery, which was supposed to last a month, and he eventually retired. It looks simple at first glance, but you have to be careful not to overcomplicate it.”