For two-and-a-year half years, he appeared to be fighting a losing battle against injury. But at the 2002 World Cup, Ronaldo was back, once again resembling the player who terrorised defenders and won the World Player of the Year award two years running.

The striker, who only made his international comeback at the end of March with 45 minutes against Yugoslavia, capped an outstanding World Cup by scoring the two goals against Germany that gave his country a record-breaking fifth world title.

He also equalled Pele’s total of 12 World Cup goals, lifted the trophy for the second time at the age of 25 having been an unused substitute at the 1994 final -- and gave South America a 9-8 lead over Europe in world titles.

He may still have been lacking some of his old pace but the German defence still could not cope with a player for whom the World Cup finals marked an astonishing resurgence.

Ronaldo said yesterday’s performance had taken a weight off his mind after his outing in France four years ago, when he controversially played the full 90 minutes despite suffering a fit in the team hotel only hours earlier.

“I don’t feel in debt to anyone but a weight has been lifted from my conscience,” he said after finishing as the competition’s top scorer with eight goals. “I’m free.”

“I don’t want to think about the future now, I’m just trying to think how I’m going to celebrate,” he added.

Ronaldo’s injury misery began in late 1999, when he had an operation on his right knee. His comeback match for his Italian club Inter Milan six months later lasted only six minutes, when he tore ligaments in the same knee.

This time, a painstaking recovery took more than two years but his comeback was then cut short by a series of frustrating muscular injuries.

At the start of this year, he was taken back to Brazil from Italy where an eight-strong team of professionals - including two doctors, a nutritionist and a physiotherapist - spent one month effectively rebuilding the stricken star.

This time, it worked. The muscular injuries went away and Ronaldo was ready for his third World Cup.

“I have a lot of things to thank God for,” he said. “My big victory, as I have said before, was to play football again, to run again and to score goals again. This conquest today, our fifth world title, has crowned my struggle, my recovery.

“More than anything, it’s a victory for the whole group. I must never forget how marvellous the rest of the group was. The whole team ran and battled and helped each other. No individual conquest can beat what the group achieved.” Ronaldo dedicated his comeback to his physiotherapist Nilton Petrone. “He never abandoned me at any moment in my recovery,” added the Brazilian hero.