World Cup icon left injured after tennis match with Carlos Alcaraz

A footballing icon and former World Cup winner has revealed that he suffered an injury after playing a friendly tennis match with world number one Carlos Alcaraz.

Alcaraz, who won the Australian Open in February, is currently preparing for the clay-court season, with the Spaniard set to defend his Monte Carlo Masters title when the tournament gets under way on 5 April.

Despite Jannik Sinner securing the ‘Sunshine Double’ by winning Indian Wells and the Miami Open, the 22-year-old remains the highest-ranked men’s singles player on the circuit heading into the clay-court season, boasting 13,590 ATP points to the Italian’s 12,400.

And while both tennis stars will be aiming to be in tip-top shape come the start of the French Open, which gets under way at Roland-Garros on 18 May, the same can’t be said for former Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter, AC Milan and Brazil striker Ronaldo Nazário.

The 2002 World Cup winner has revealed that he sustained a shoulder injury after being caught on the end of one of Alcaraz’s shots when the duo faced each other in a friendly match in Miami in 2025.

Ronaldo explained how he has been suffering from shoulder inflammation when speaking to CazeTV.

“I’ve had inflammation in my shoulder ever since. It was in November, right?” the two-time Ballon d’Or winner said.

“He was fine, everything was all right. He gave his shots a little speed and I could handle it well, man, and all that. But then, in return, the exchange was good, then he hit me hard again in a way.

“It lasted two days, then I arrived in São Paulo, my shoulder… I couldn’t greet anyone like that. I even posted it on Instagram, I think, putting ice on my shoulder.

“But he is really cool, and he’s super charismatic, super friendly. Man, the guy is easy, very easy, very, very, very cool. That says a lot about the champion he is, right, man?”

But what did Alcaraz make of R9’s tennis skills?

After the pair’s match, the seven-time Grand Slam winner admitted that the Brazilian was “even better” than he had expected.

“He’s doing very well. I had seen videos of him playing, but playing with him seems to have been even better than what I had seen,” Alcaraz told GE TV.