Is Bale a glass player?

Bale has an incredible athletic physique. Fit, he’s one of the finest footballers I’ve ever seen. As one of the most important players in any side, and with a major psychological component, his sporting performance should be consistently world class. However the reality is the opposite. He’s a player who struggles to perform well for two months continuously, due to physical problems, mostly muscular. When he manages to get into somewhat decent shape, a new injury appears, almost always in his lower legs and in particular the soleus muscle.

Last Saturday we were at a medical conference on lower leg injuries, in particular the Achilles tendon, held at the Hospital Infanta Leonor in Madrid. During the event it was explained that the soleus is one of the least well known, and most troublesome, of all the muscles in the body. It’s necessary to take great care of it, and when things go wrong, make an exact diagnosis and establish a clear prognosis as quickly as possible. And from that point, it’s vital to control the treatment protocols in line with the muscle’s biomechanics, and NOT the feelings of the footballer, if you want to avoid unnecessary relapses. Bale wants to play. He wants to recover fast. He pushes his recuperation with an enviable amount of effort. But sometimes it takes time to get the best results.