Sports Medicine Master System-Chapter 88 - 76: Two Choices

Chen Yu nodded. Jordan’s salary back then was pretty outrageous.

Across from them, Blanchini couldn’t help but complain, "Globally, soccer’s influence is greater than basketball’s, but its commercialization is nowhere near as good as the NBA’s. The salary gap is just too big."

Right now, the highest-earning star in the soccer world was probably Zidane.

As an agent, Blanchini knew the situation best. In the just-ended year of 2000, Zidane’s total earnings, including endorsements, were eleven million US dollars.

But Jordan, he made thirty million in salary alone back in ’96.

And even now, the NBA was full of players with multi-million dollar annual salaries. There was just no comparison.

So, in Blanchini’s view, salaries had to skyrocket.

Ronaldo nodded in deep agreement.

In his life, he loved only three things: soccer, beautiful women, and money!

’Are we getting a little off-topic?’ Chen Yu thought. ’I came here today to treat a patient, you know.’

His gaze fell upon Ronaldo’s right knee.

His first impression was horrifying.

Especially the patellar tendon, held in place by sutures.

And it wasn’t just his right knee; his left knee also showed signs of injury.

"Let’s schedule the examination first."

A visual inspection was one thing, but the necessary tests still had to be done.

The sanatorium had the equipment, so Ronaldo was scheduled for various knee examinations that very day.

「The next day.」

In the consultation room, Chen Yu flipped through Ronaldo’s MRI results, silently running calculations in his mind.

Chen Yu had already understood Ronaldo’s situation perfectly.

The problem was very tricky.

Chen Yu had also obtained Ronaldo’s thick medical file from Blanchini.

He had a long history of injuries. His knee had been injured as far back as his time in the Eredivisie with Eindhoven, requiring surgery even then. And then came the injuries of the past two years.

After the ’98 World Cup, his knee was constantly getting injured, though they were all minor. That was until the end of the year before last, when his patellar tendon partially tore and he suffered a comminuted fracture of the femoral cartilage because of a hole in the field.

Afterward, he rested for only four months post-surgery before rushing back onto the pitch.

The result, of course, was the infamous six-minute tragedy that shocked the world and nearly forced him off the green pitch for good.

Chen Yu flipped through the medical records again, trying to find the reason for his frequent knee injuries.

Chen Yu had spotted one reason at first glance.

But there had to be other reasons.

Perhaps it had something to do with his playing style, like his preference for changing direction at high speeds to dribble past opponents.

Hill was the same way. A quick first step, and he’d blow right past you. Naturally, that put immense pressure on the knees.

’This probably isn’t the main reason,’ Chen Yu thought.

A top-tier professional player like Ronaldo was physically very strong. His playing style might have an impact, but it surely wasn’t that significant.

As he kept looking, Chen Yu felt he had found the cause.

Patellar tendinitis!

Looking at the medical records, this condition had likely appeared in the spring of ’98.

This patellar tendinitis was a troublesome thing. How does one get it? To put it bluntly, overexertion.

That was a World Cup year. He was constantly traveling for club and National Team matches, overexerting himself without receiving proper treatment.

Later medical records showed that this patellar tendinitis had been with him ever since, essentially becoming a chronic condition.

As long as this condition is controlled, it’s not a problem at all. But if left uncontrolled for a long time, it has one major consequence: it increases the brittleness of the patellar tendon.

A tendon is a tendon; it needs to be resilient. When it becomes brittle, it’s easily damaged.

Not to mention the damage the inflammation itself does to the tendon.

"Ronnie, has anyone ever told you that you have congenital trochlear dysplasia in both of your knees?" Chen Yu asked.

Ronaldo paused for a moment, stunned, then nodded. "Pedroni told me."

He was a well-known medical rehabilitation specialist in Brazil. Ronaldo had been doing his rehabilitation training with him for his injuries over the past two years.

Chen Yu pointed to the scans and gave Ronaldo a detailed explanation of his injury history.

His trochlear dysplasia caused his patella to tilt to one side as it slid, lengthening its path. This stretched the patellar tendon more and also compressed the femoral cartilage in the trochlear groove, easily causing cartilage damage. The comminuted cartilage fracture in ’99 was most likely related to this.

"Then, your patellar tendinitis made your tendon fragile. That, combined with the accident, led to this severe injury. It’s also the fundamental reason why your recovery has been so unsatisfactory for such a long time."

"Furthermore, after your tendon was sutured, you didn’t begin rehabilitation training early enough, which caused a decline in its function."

Chen Yu then picked up a pen, drawing a diagram to explain tendon repair to him.

"After a tendon is sutured, a large amount of scar tissue forms at the rupture site. The regrowing tissue fibers need to undergo rehabilitation as soon as possible to ensure they grow longitudinally. This is essential for preserving maximum athletic ability."

Ronaldo, only half-understanding, said, "So, you’re saying my tendon didn’t heal properly."

Chen Yu shook his head. "It’s not that it didn’t heal properly, but that it didn’t heal well enough."

His patellar tendon had healed into a tangled mess. If you were to ask if it had healed... well, it had certainly healed.

For a normal person, its function would be considered restored. They could walk normally, perhaps with some pain, but without any major issues.

But for a professional athlete like Ronaldo, healing like this was nowhere near good enough.

No matter how freakishly athletic one is, their athletic ability will decline sharply.

That’s why so many top players, so many geniuses, are never the same after a tendon rupture.

"Chen, what do we do then?" Blanchini asked anxiously from the side.