Not surprisingly, Rafael Nadal played the whole thing down. The world’s No 1 player had just ended Roger Federer’s Australian Open hopes and this was no time to whinge about a blister.
The day before Nadal’s semi-final meeting with the Swiss great, media reports had speculated that a “horrific” blister on his left hand could prove his downfall after he had struggled in beating Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight.
As it turned out, the Spaniard was in imperious form, easily beating a fading Federer 7-6, 6-3, 6-3.
“Too much talk about the blister,” Nadal said post-match. “The blister is OK.”
The public, though, love nothing more than a valiant, playing-through-the-pain-barrier success story.
Everyone loves a fighter – and Nadal is certainly that – and nobody likes a quitter.
Last year, Rory McIlroy attracted widespread ridicule for quitting the Honda Classic because of a toothache. He later admitted that the discomfort should not have been enough for him to walk off.
No doubt, Nadal must have been in some discomfort, too, and Federer, though no longer at peak power, can still be a fearsome opponent.
Having spent long periods of 2012 and last year battling serious injuries, and having missed the Australian Open last year, Nadal typically dismissed the blister.
Stanislas Wawrinka had better look elsewhere for chinks in Nadal's game if he is to prosper in Sunday's men's final.
Champions, by their nature, never dwell on weaknesses.
In the 2012 quarter-finals in Melbourne, Novak Djokovic had to overcome breathing and hamstring problems to defeat David Ferrer.
“I found it very difficult after a long time to breathe because I felt the whole day my nose was closed a little bit,” Djokovic said. “I just wasn’t able to get enough oxygen.”
Still, with a semi-final date with Andy Murray only two days away, the Serb, like Nadal, insisted his problems were a mere inconvenience.
“But I am not too concerned about that at all,” he said. “I’m really fit.”
He promptly overcame Murray, and his breathing troubles, and went on to win the second of his three Australian Open titles.
Tennis can be harsh on the body, and there has been many examples of players carrying on with severe, chronic discomforts. And not just in one-off matches.
On his retirement, Andre Agassi admitted that he had played the last five years of his career with the degenerative disc disease spondylolisthesis, causing one of the vertebrae in his lower back to slip out of place.
No sport, however, lionises playing on with an injury quite like football does.
In September 1989, England needed to avoid defeat in Stockholm against Sweden to boost their hopes of reaching the following year’s Fifa World Cup finals in Italy, and they achieved that with a goalless draw. The match became notorious for another reason.
In the first half, England captain Terry Butcher suffered a deep head wound which, despite being stitched up and bandaged, kept reopening as the central defender headed one ball after another.
By the end of the match, Butcher’s white shirt had turned red, the incident endlessly raised over the following years.
Of course, the more visible the injury, the more dramatic the spectacle.
In the 1970 World Cup semi-final at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico, Italy beat West Germany 4-3 in one of football’s most fabled matches. The “Game of the Century”, as it became known, had everything, including an individual playing through the pain barrier.
And not just any individual. Franz Beckenbauer broke his collarbone, but as the Germans had used both substitutes, he persevered to the end of a brutal extra-time, arm in a makeshift sling. It remains one of the World Cup’s most iconic images.
Then there is the astonishing case of Bert Trautmann, Manchester City’s German goalkeeper.
In the 73rd minute of the 1956 FA Cup final, Trautmann injured his neck in a collision with Birmingham City’s Peter Murphy. It was revealed three days later to be a broken neck, but the big German not only finished the match but also pulled off several saves as City won 3-1.
In boxing, needless to say, inflicting injury is the whole point of proceedings, but even taking that into consideration some struggles have become legend.
In March 1973, Muhammad Ali fought Ken Norton in California, more than year and half before retaining his world title against George Foreman in Zaire.
In Round 11, Norton broke Ali’s jaw. “The Greatest”, however, would not quit and went the distance, only losing the 15-round bout on a split decision.
The fight became known as “The Jawbreaker”. Somehow, “The Blister Maker” just wouldn’t have the same ring to it.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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