Brazilian forward Ronaldo Luiz Nazario da Lima said
he is still young enough to afford taking a year off to recover from his knee
injury.
"I am 23 years old. I may lose six months or maybe a year. Either way, I will
still be playing my best when I am 30," Ronaldo says in a statement published in
O Globhs.
The forward, who plays for Milan's Inter, told people who have visited him in
the Paris hospital where he underwent surgery that he is confident he will
recover fully and return to his top shape.
Despite Ronaldo's optimism, several Brazilian specialists say that, while the
defender may return to the game, he will not perform at the same level that made
him the world's top soccer player for two consecutive years.
"Unfortunately, he will be an ordinary player, because he will not have that
explosiveness and speed which have been so characteristic," says Dr. Moises
Cohen, director of the Sao Paulo Center for Sports Trauma, affiliated with that
city's school of medicine.
French surgeon Gerard Saillant, who operated on Ronaldo in Paris, says the
rehabilitation process will be "long and difficult," but added that Ronaldo will
"be able to return to the game by the beginning of 2001."
According to Saillant, it is too early for anyone to say whether or not Ronaldo
will return to top shape. |