Kirian Rodríguez has before him the most important game of his life, away from the pitch, where the midfielder from Santa Cruz de Tenerife performs best. In the face of Hogdkin’s lymphoma, he will surely place one of the threads “with the ankle facing in” just as he did in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López so that the YOU could beat Tenerife at home 20 years later. If he could with the curse of Teide, he will also be able to face cancer, in the same way that other sports legends overcame the tumors that arose in their lives and that did not deprive them to extend their legacy.
There is no better mirror in which Kirian can look at himself than that of a person as close as Carla Suárez. The tennis player shocked the racket world when in September 2020 she announced that she had to leave the courts due to the same lymphoma that is now attacking the soccer player.
The Gran Canarian did not stop hitting the Hogdkin and seven months later she could proudly say that she had beaten cancer. A fight that allowed her to retire as she had in mind, competing from the track. In this way, she was able to say goodbye, returning to enjoy both other Olympic Games and one last time on the courts of Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the US Open, where she put an end to a 15-year career.
Carla and Kirian already had a private conversation on the same Tuesday in which the soccer player announced that they had detected lymphoma and both already know the way forward.
Another of those who shocked the Island was Kyle Kuric in November 2015. The then Granca player complained of severe headaches and after a medical check-up in Barcelona they found that he had a meningioma on the front.
The jug of ice water for national basketball was imminent when the release of the escort was reported, who immediately went through the operating room when it was decreed that it was a benign tumor.
Five months after the intervention, Kuric returned in a match against Valencia and hammered the hoops again from the triple line.
With regard to the world of football, players who have suffered various types of cancer during their careers are better known. José Molina, Yeray Álvarez, Lubo Penev, Carlos Roa, Jonás Gutiérrez, Germán El Mono Burgos and so on to a long list of names that were able to overcome the tumors they were diagnosed with.
Eric Abidal deserves a special question, when in 2011 he reported that the Hepatitis B treatment with which he had lived since birth had led to liver cancer.
After receiving a transplant from what he said was his cousin – still unclear – the Barça player recovered physically in record time and in three months he was back on the pitch. As much as to be a starter in the 2011 Champions League final and be able to lift the trophy by beating Manchester United and after Puyol’s gesture of giving him the honor as captain.
Arjen Robben also overcame a testicular tumor when he was 20 years old and about to sign for Chelsea. The Dutch player was able to overcome cancer and landed at the London club. Since then, his career has been meteoric, passing through Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to win 30 titles.
A separate question deserves that of Lance Armstrong, who in 1996 overcame testicular cancer with metastases that had spread to the lungs. He recovered and won seven Tours de France… with the only problem being doping.
