Rodri's Injury: From World Cup Glory to Uncertainty

Rodri’s World Cup summer was supposed to be the reset, the proof that an elite career battered by injury could be rebuilt. Instead, his crowning moment with Spain has been followed by yet another brutal twist.

The Manchester City midfielder, fresh from lifting the World Cup and the Golden Ball after Spain’s 1-0 win over Argentina in New Jersey, is now staring at an extended spell on the sidelines with a back injury that may require surgery. If the operation goes ahead, he is expected to miss the start of the new season.

For a player who had just rediscovered his peak, the timing could hardly be worse.

From Golden Ball to operating table?

At 30, Rodri arrived at this World Cup under a cloud. Two seasons of stop-start football, constant rehab, and the nagging doubt that his body might no longer tolerate the relentless demands of club and country.

Then he dominated the tournament.

He captained Spain with authority, controlled games with that familiar metronomic assurance, and drove them through tense knockout ties to the final. The Golden Ball felt like a vindication: the best player at the World Cup, back where he belonged, dictating the biggest matches on the biggest stage.

Yet even as he celebrated on Sunday night, the problem in his back loomed in the background. Now it threatens to derail the momentum he fought so hard to regain.

A career reshaped by injuries

This latest issue follows a grim sequence of setbacks that began in September 2024. In a 2–2 draw with Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium, Rodri ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament. The injury wiped out most of that campaign and changed the rhythm of his career.

When he finally returned, more trouble awaited. He picked up another injury at the Club World Cup last July, then endured hamstring and groin problems across last season. The toll showed in the numbers: he started only 17 Premier League matches.

For a player once regarded as City’s ever-present heartbeat, that was a stark drop. The aura of indestructibility vanished, replaced by a constant battle just to stay on the pitch.

The back problem now threatens to extend that battle into a third straight season.

Uncertain future, complicated present

The injury arrives at a delicate moment in Rodri’s relationship with Manchester City. His contract runs out next June, and his long-term future at the club is far from clear.

He has never hidden his desire to play again in Spain. Those close to the situation believe he would favour a move to Real Madrid if he returns home, yet the European champions have not made a concrete move to sign him. For now, it remains a possibility, not a negotiation.

Inside City, new manager Enzo Maresca wants him to stay. For a coach stepping into one of the most demanding jobs in football, losing a midfielder of Rodri’s calibre and influence would be a brutal early blow. The prospect of starting a new era without his most complete midfielder, and perhaps planning for life beyond him altogether, complicates an already challenging transition.

How do you build a midfield when your anchor is both indispensable and potentially unavailable?

“When you go down, you can rise again”

Rodri has never tried to disguise how hard the last few years have been. Speaking after Spain’s World Cup triumph, he opened a rare window into the emotional strain behind the medals and trophies.

“For me, it’s been a very tough time,” he said. “I just want the new generations to see my example as an opportunity. When you go down, you can rise again. This is my philosophy for my entire life. Of course, sometimes things go well, things go wrong, but always the positiveness.”

Those words sounded like the reflections of a man who had finally come through the worst of it. Now they read more like a manifesto he will have to live by all over again.

He has risen once already, from an ACL rupture and a season shredded by muscle problems, to become the outstanding player at a World Cup. The question now is not whether he has the mentality to do it again. He has already answered that.

The real question is how many times a body, even one as resilient as his, can be pushed back to the summit.