Coach Fernando Rivas was at home under quarantine due to Covid-19 for some time. He had been connecting with his team over Zoom calls.
On the court, Carolina Marin was training with assistant coach Anders Thomsen.
On Friday (May 29), Rivas saw several missed calls on his phone from Thomsen.
When he opened his Whatsapp, he saw the following message from Thomsen – “Urgent, call me!” He knew something was wrong right away
When he called Thomsen, he saw Carolina Marin on the floor, crying and clutching her left knee. Marin had injured her left knee.
To ascertain the extent of the injury, an MRI was done immediately. Marin’s team even entertained the idea of hiring a shaman or a spiritual healer while waiting for the MRI results.
However, the MRI results revealed ‘a disaster’, a rupture in the ACL of the left knee and a partial tear of both the external and the internal meniscus.
There were discussions inside the team if postponing the surgery until after the Olympics was an option. 48 hours were given to the physiotherapist and the psychologist to see if Marin’s condition became manageable.
Marin’s mother also rushed from Huelva to Madrid and stayed with her.
A second medical review was done on Sunday afternoon and it was rather bad.
Marin wanted to recover in time for the World Championships in her hometown Huelva in November later this year, so she opted for surgery.
This means she is out of the Olympics. She took around 8 months from a similar injury which she suffered in 2019 on the other knee.
“This is very hard to take in. We are devastated, especially because of what she has been able to do in these last two years …
“If there is someone who did not deserve it, it is her, it seems that every time she manages to come up, another thing hits her,” Rivas told El Pais.
If there is any player who can come back from such setbacks, it would be Carolina Marin.
Marin’s team has been trying to cheer up and motivate Marin for the next Olympic Games now – which is just 3 years away in Paris in 2024.
Marin would be just 31 in 2024. Zhang Ning, the only women’s singles player to win two Olympic gold medals, won her second medal when she was 33.
An emotional Fernando Rivas wrote on his Twitter, “Despite your hard work, your dedication and devotion to overcome any obstacle that you encountered that only the chosen ones can overcome, destiny came again to remind you that it is not going to play easy on you. I start to think that destiny’s purpose is to give your opponents the chances you deny them on court. To somehow balance the new standards you have given to women’s singles.
“What destiny doesn’t know is who it is really facing, and I am sure you will look destiny in the eye, with no elusive look and rather soon it will understand that it stands no chance against Carolina Marin. Soon, after once again a superhuman effort, dedication and devotion, you will look into history and from that place you will explain destiny that your will is stronger than its whims.
“You know that your entourage supports you unconditionally. We were there when you bit your medals ( you will bite them again ), but especially we cry with you over your injuries. Together we will start rewriting what destiny forced us to postpone.”
