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The World Cup ended a month ago, but Kaka and Arjen Robben still
bear the pain.

A Belgian specialist who performed surgery on Kaka’s knee last
week said he jeopardised his career by playing for Brazil.

And according to Bayern Munich’s club doctor, Robben’s thigh
injury was so bad he should never have played for the Netherlands (Robben wound
up helping the Dutch reach the World Cup final).

We have been down this road before. The image of Zinedine Zidane
attempting to represent France at the 2002 World Cup despite having a thigh so
heavily bandaged he could barely walk was warning enough of the futility of it
all. The world moves on, but the consequences of stretching star players to the
breaking point between club and country is nowhere near being resolved.

At the start of this World Cup, Dr. Michel D’Hooghe, the chairman
of the medical committee for FIFA, soccer’s governing body, called on doctors
responsible for each of the 32 teams to respect their oath in terms of doping,
injury prevention and care. D’Hooghe also urged the referees to be vigilant
against particularly aggressive fouls.

After the final, during which the English referee Howard Webb
failed to send off Nigel de Jong of the Netherlands for kicking Xabi Alonso of
Spain in the ribs,

FIFA took three weeks to respond. Last Tuesday, it fined the
Dutch football association $14,480 because eight of its players received yellow
cards and one a red in that game. Spain, which had five players receive
yellows, was fined $9,650.

Those fines had all the effect of whacking a rhinoceros’s
backside with a feather.

Spain took home $30 million for winning the World Cup, the
Netherlands $24 million for finishing second, and each Spanish player walked,
or limped, away with a $750,000 bonus.

It is not money alone that drives players, most already rich, in
the World Cup. It is glory, achievement, fulfillment. And for those reasons,
players need to be protected from themselves.

Kaka and Robben went to the World Cup knowing all was not right
physically. Kaka’s club president at Real Madrid had insinuated last March that
Kaka was exaggerating his injury to save himself for the World Cup.

The president, Florentino Perez, had paid AC Milan $90 million
for Kaka, and the time he missed because of his injury represented a poor
return on the investment. Yet Madrid knew it had been sold a battered player;
Kaka had often played through ailments for Milan. His groin-muscle injury was
longstanding, and a knee strain then developed after he joined Madrid.

For Brazil, the importance of his passes, his intuitive awareness
of where Luis Fabiano or Robinho would move, could be sublime. But Kaka’s World
Cup was marred by his evident pain, and irritable moods.

Finally, as Kaka prepared to start Madrid’s preseason tour in Los
Angeles, the club sent him to Marc Martens, a knee specialist based in Antwerp,
Belgium, who had extended the careers of players like Ruud Gullit.

Martens told a Spanish newspaper: “As soon as I saw him, I could
tell it was serious. He started playing with some niggling injuries and ended
up with unbearable pain.” He added: “He pushed himself too hard against Holland
and Chile. It could have finished his career, destroyed him.” Kaka needs up to
four months to recuperate, but he should recover. Kaka said to reporters that
he had told the doctors in Madrid and Brazil that he felt pain in the knee, and
that they had suggested it was “just a muscle imbalance.” Jose Luiz Runco,
Brazil’s team doctor, said on a Brazilian sports channel: “Kaka did not risk
his career in any moment. He didn’t play in his normal state, but he showed
evident progress during the World Cup, which allowed him to be the outstanding
player in some matches.” Robben’s injured thigh muscle was known about before
the World Cup. Such was his value to Bayern Munich and the Netherlands, however
that he played for both at times when he was less than 100 percent physically.

His spectacular dribbles and goals took Munich to the Champions
League final in May. His latest hamstring pull came June 4, in a friendly
against Hungary.

Robben sat out the Netherlands’ first two games at the World Cup,
played 20 minutes as a substitute in the third, then started and scored against
Slovakia, Brazil and Uruguay, and was the Dutch team’s best player in the
final.

On his return to Munich last week, a magnetic resonance imaging
scan showed the thigh muscle was torn.

“It was irresponsible that it wasn’t properly diagnosed by the
Dutch,” said Bayern’s club physician, Hans-Wilhelm Mueller-Wohlfahrt. “He
should not have been allowed to play at the World Cup.” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge,
Bayern’s chief executive and chairman of the 191-member European Club
Association, is demanding reimbursement.

“Arjen will be missing for the important beginning to the
season,” he said. “Such an injury costs money. It would be fair if the Dutch
would bear these costs.” Rummenigge added: “We pay the players, but the
national teams injure them. FIFA values the players, but we value them five or
six times higher.

‘’Put it this way: If I rent a car, I must return it in a decent
condition. They have taken Arjen in good shape and returned him to the garage“
in awful shape.

© 2010 New York Times News
Service