He’s not wearing his trademark headband in Paris – the German tans easily and doesn’t want a white line for his upcoming wedding — but Christopher Ruhr is just thankful to be here at all.
January 20. The heat of Muscat, the uncertainty of Olympic qualifiers and what may lie in store in Paris six months and counting. Christopher Ruhr is down on the turf and screaming in pain.
“In that moment I was screaming ‘No, no, no’, because I knew, okay, that’s it. Tears were shed. I cried my ass off.”
A torn cruciate ligament. “At that moment, I just thought: That’s it for the Olympics,” said the Cologne native.
Germany qualified but Ruhr’s hopes were in the balance. As a medical student, he already knew that surgery would be out of the question with the nine months or so of recovery time.
As it was an ACL tear (not any meniscus, or any other ligament), the World Cup winner had hope.
He also had fiancee Nike Lorenz, the Germany women’s captain, in his corner. “She was my rock in the storm,” he admitted recently.
READ MORE: Germany’s World Cup win: ‘It is quite remarkable what influence you can have on kids’
Ruhr trained and nearly five months after the injury he was back playing for Germany. He scored immediately. “It was worth every drop of sweat,” he says. He also convinced coach Andre Henning that he ready to run through the mill if selected.
“I didn’t get surgery. I just had a big rehabilitation process and strengthened my muscles, and now I’m wearing a brace that helps me be stable, and it’s all perfect.”
It hasn’t all been perfect in Paris. He received a one-match ban for a dangerous stick movement in the opening game. And for all his misdemeanours on the field (England know all about that), he is highly-regarded off it. “He’s a great kid,” Spain coach Max Caldas said this week.
If Germany can upgrade their world title to Olympic gold, Ruhr is set to marry Nike – and maybe have his knee operated on.
