In another case of playing when you shouldn’t, Real Madrid star Kaka apparently risked his career by featuring for Brazil at the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

This is the thought of the doctor who performed the surgery to repair a meniscus injury in Kaka’s knee this past week.

Ricardo Izecson Dos Santos Leite (Kaka) underwent surgery after complaining of pain in his left knee during Real Madrid’s pre-season camp in Los Angeles. After a medical check, it was discovered that arthroscopic surgery was required.

The doctor who performed the surgery, Marc Martens, said the former World Player of the Year pushed himself too far at the World Cup.

”As soon as I saw him I could tell it was serious… His career has come under serious danger.

It could have finished his career because it’s a very serious injury – it could have destroyed him, but thank God he has had the operation at the crucial moment and everything has turned out wonderfully.”

Kaka is expected to miss three to four months.

We saw a similar situation earlier this week when Bayern Munich argued that Dutch star Arjen Robben wasn’t diagnosed correctly and shouldn’t have played at the World Cup because of on-going hamstring problems.

Robben played through to the World Cup final, only to re-injure his hamstring. He’ll miss the first six to eight weeks of the German Bundesliga.

While both stars are on the shelf for lengthy periods of time, one difference in all of this is the way Real Madrid has reacted compared to Bayern Munich.

Real hasn’t shown to be too angry about Kaka’s injury, whereas Bayern was furious with the Dutch football federation about Robben. This could be because Robben is one of Bayern’s impact players – while it appears Kaka will have some difficulty fitting in under new Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho, as the Brazilian has been the subject of transfer talk.

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