Once upon a time there was the myth of the steel athlete who could not be bent by the elements: snow, rain, and wind were the opponents; heat less so, that is a recent story. Then the illnesses of Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, and Lorenzo Musetti showed that tennis players are also fragile, and meanwhile the Vuelta a España 2026 shortened the length of a stage due to the intense heat. Finally, the dehydration episode involving Rosen Bozhinov sparked outrage and controversy even in the most beautiful sport in the world.
Infectious disease specialist Matteo Bassetti also stepped onto the field, criticizing the choice to play football matches at 3 p.m. during days of intense heat, ideally echoing the warning of professor Enrico Castellacci, from Lucca, national president of the Sports Doctors of the National football team, former medical director of the Azzurri team from 2004 to 2018 (he won the World Cup), now on the staff of Uzbekistan under coach Fabio Cannavaro. We asked him for insights for all athletes, of every level and rank.
Are athletes human too?
“Each of us has limits: we are all equal as such, but physically and mentally we are all different. And we see this even in the world of sport, which pushes endurance to the limits. The superhero does not exist, there are those who are better prepared and those who have more mental control.”
Sinner, Djokovic, and Musetti. Is something happening to tennis players in particular?
“They undergo huge training sessions, then on the court they are alone and for hours subjected to stress that other athletes do not have. In football (and I say this as a great football lover) you play an hour and a half or a little more and together with teammates, stopping every now and then. They, the tennis players, play too much, doing brutal tour de forces physically and mentally. Then weather conditions are part of the game, some suffer less and some more; and we come back to the start.”
What can be done?
“Checks, checks, and more checks to ascertain their psychophysical conditions ‘in real time.’ And reduce the calendars, play less, and move matches to times away from those exposed to high temperatures with very high humidity rates, because few outdoors realize the physical and mental effort required. These are things I have been preaching for years but every time they remain dead letters because business, the god money, rules.”
Then why does it continue?
“Because the deontological and ethical code imposes it on me. Those who perform this profession have a moral and scientific weight, but certainly do not have real weight on federations and sports clubs: who wants to listen to us? I am disillusioned but I will continue out of duty to denounce that man also has limits and these limits must be respected.”
Once heroes did not die, they just disappeared over the horizon. Today we see them on TV and… they seem like us.
“Exactly. Many have undergone this or that operation or therapy. When you are young you do not think about it, you think you are immortal (and that is also right). Only the medical side thinks about the consequences. But athletes also have problems and suffer the consequences of a life with the accelerator always at maximum. The hope of the above message is that at least it can reach ordinary people.”
And does it work?
“The untrained 50-year-old still goes to play five-a-side football at 1 p.m. because with friends he found the field free at that time. Mandatory check-ups no longer exist, the last remaining one is the sports one. We sports doctors do the fitness certifications, always criticized, but we are the last passport of life.
So, again, what can really be done?
“Common sense and rationality. I remember the World Cup in Brazil, in Manaus, but also the last ones with Uzbekistan: where there were no air-conditioned environments we tried everything, from a cold towel on the neck to ice gloves on the wet head. Everything helps, but in the end the only thing that really works is to do sport in bearable conditions.”
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