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Comeback cut short Ronaldo to undergo surgery after injury in return match
Posted: Thursday April 13, 2000 01:27 PM
ROME (AP) -- A smiling Ronaldo, arms spread wide like wings, doing his human-airplane victory lap after yet another signature goal -- it now seems just a distant memory. For soccer fans around the world, that image had been replaced on Thursday by one of the 23-year-old Brazilian superstar clutching his re-injured right knee and screaming in agony just seven minutes after returning to action for the first time since torn-ligament surgery in November. Ronaldo will undergo surgery on Thursday, less than 24 hours after re-injuring his knee. The Inter Milan striker had earlier hobbled into Paris' Salpetriere Hospital on crutches, shielded by security guards as he made his way through a crowd of waiting reporters. Ronaldo will undergo surgery at about 7 p.m. local time (1700 GMT), a hospital spokesman said. He will be treated by the same doctors that carried out an operation on his right knee on Nov. 30 -- and gave him the green light to return to action 10 days ago. "The Drama of Ronaldo," was the Rome daily La Repubblica's front-page headline, placed over a photograph of the fallen Internazionale striker in Wednesday night's Italian Cup match against Lazio in Rome. As word spread of the latest, and perhaps saddest, chapter in Ronaldo's young career, some began to question whether the two-time FIFA player of the year will ever return to the greatness that made him the heir apparent to Pele and Diego Maradona. "From that scream and his holding the knee between his hands, it was clear right away that this was an awful story," wrote columnist Gianni Mura in La Repubblica. "Who knows if he had really recovered, or if he will ever recover ... if he will give up or continue to fight. He has the most risky fragility, that of the tools of his trade." Ronaldo was flown from Milan's Linate airport late Thursday morning to Paris, to be examined by the same doctors who just 10 days ago had given the striker the green light to return to action. After more than four months of intensive rehabilitation, Ronaldo was expected to play some 20 minutes in the first leg of the Italian Cup final, which Lazio went on to win 2-1. But just seven minutes after replacing Roberto Baggio in the 59th minute, the Milan squad's "phenom" crumbled to the ground as his right knee gave out during one of his trademark dribbling moves above Lazio's penalty area. He was untouched on the play by any opponent. A sobbing Ronaldo was taken away on a stretcher as the crowd applauded him. "We are afraid it may be the same tendon operated on last November," said Inter's general manager Gabriele Oriali. Ronaldo had played only seven matches with Inter this season before being sidelined by the knee injury. Inter's president Massimo Moratti, the oil industrialist who paid rich contracts to sign Ronaldo and Italian top striker Christian Vieri, rushed to the dressing room and tried to console the Brazilian player who could not stop crying in despair. "I'm really sorry for Ronaldo and for Inter. Without a doubt he's a very unlucky player," said Lazio's Swedish coach Sven Goran Eriksson. Ronaldo, who came to Inter in 1997 from Barcelona, has been troubled by injuries and a questionable form since the World Cup finals in France, when Brazil lost the title to the home team. His history of knee problems goes back to 1996 when he was playing in the Netherlands. On eve of the Italian Cup final, the striker had high hopes to help Inter win the trophy. "At last I can play without feeling pain in my knee. It has been a bad year for Inter. I hope I still can help the team," Ronaldo said. Off the field, it was otherwise a happy period for the Brazilian player who got married in December and just six days ago became a first-time father, when his wife Milene gave birth to a son, Ronald. "What happened to Ronaldo is moving, and not just because he's a famous soccer player. He had put so much grit and desire to return from this injury," said Inter coach Marcello Lippi. "Now he will stay with his son in his arms ... if he is out again for many months, this time it will pass easier."
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