The second rebirth of Alba Torrens: “Either I operated or I could not continue at the highest level”

The forward, who already suffered a serious injury in 2012, returns to the national team after nine months without playing. Spain plays its ticket to the Games in Belgrade

I missed them so much. I wanted to be back, to share these moments with my companions. The last time Alba Torrens dressed from Spain, in September 2018, hung on Tenerife a world bronze to the neck. Without it, last summer, the account was not stopped, the deed continues, European champions in Belgrade. Precisely in the Serbian capital, great memories, seek from this Thursday (first game against South Korea, 14.30, TDP) the ticket to which will be the fifth Games of the women's team that neither the continental crown assured.

And there is Alba, the greatest talent that ever wore that shirt, in search of his ninth medal with Spain, in which is his second rebirth. Because he had to say enough, ruined by a knee that gave him too much trouble. Not that he needed to stop, it's that there was no other. Either he went through the operating room or he could not continue to the maximum level, he acknowledges. Nine months away from the courts until He reappeared a few days ago with his team, Yekaterinburg. It is not the first time he has been through something like that. Then, in 2012, it was much more terrible.

Then, with the colors of the Galatasaray, his knee jumped through the air. That image, which hurts to see her repeated, takes more than a year to assimilate. Now even presumes, it is part of the process, because if something has Torrens, pure nerve on the track, it is calm outside. Far from shooting any doubt, these nine months have been a restorative not only physical, but also mental for those who are on their way to the 31 and already played 167 games with the national team.

In an elite athlete there is always discomfort and pain, we expose the body to extreme situations. Here the mental part is very important, which wakes up in the hardest moments, he reasons. It goes at a lot of speed, you are following an inertia and you don't stop to think. When one stops things are seen with another perspective. Of these months, what I stay with the most is learning to relativize. It has also been a bit to look back, says Alba, who suffered from the sofa another success of the team of the impossible, the reediction of the European throne, the seventh career medal, the most difficult yet.

You have to recognize what this team has done. It goes beyond talent. It has to do with character and values. It is very difficult to be up every year. The key is to put your feet back on the ground in each competition, forget about the past. Know that you have to do it again. For example now, all the medals won do not help us to be in Tokyo. We must forget it, it is our mentality. Because not even the champion has a sealed ticket to the Games and that is why this Pre-Olympic that serves for the reunion, affordable on paper (three of the group's four pass), treacherous for them. Lucas Mondelo does not have this time any of the pvots that made the difference these championships – neither the withdrawal Sancho Lyttle nor the injured Astou Ndour -: the Balearic Nogaye Lo debuts. Trust none. It seems a short and easy way, but it is not. They are three very hard teams and you never know. We do not do any account. We prepared the first game as if it were the last game.

If nothing goes wrong, be the third Olympic experience for Alba. In Pekn, with 18 years, hallucinated with everything. The absence in London was both a thorn and an incentive for the group. And Ro … Of all the medals, if I had to choose one, it will be that Olympic silver. Also for the way it was achieved.