Returning from an ACL injury is a notoriously difficult task.
Having suffered the injury in September 2024, mere months after Spain’s Euros triumph, Rodri missed the rest of that season then featured sporadically last campaign.
He made 33 appearances across all competitions for City but suffered a number of injury setbacks and, at times, looked a shadow of the player he was before the injury.
Former City boss Pep Guardiola predicted in October last year that we would not see the best of Rodri until the World Cup.
And, as has so often been the case, the Catalan was right.
“I’ve gone through a logical process that every football player has to go through after an injury like this,” Rodri said after Spain’s triumph.
“It takes a year to get back to your best fitness level and then one more on top of that to feel like yourself again as the player you were.
“You need to be patient, and you need to believe and be confident in yourself.”
It was a frank conversation with Guardiola, where Rodri told him he needed to stop to get his body right for the World Cup, that changed the trajectory of his recovery and ensured he was back to his best for the summer tournament.
“To get where I am today in my current form, I had to be clever,” Rodri added.
“I had to know when to stop playing and when to carry on when I needed to, and that’s part of what you need to do to recover properly.
“It’s been a very tough time. 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.”