LIVERPOOL, England — Whenever one of Real Madrid’s galaxy of stars is injured, one of the first people the club’s medical staff contacts is usually Terry Nelson.
Nelson is many things — inventor and entrepreneur, amputee and erstwhile athlete — but he is not a doctor or a surgeon. Regardless, Real Madrid’s in-house physicians tend to get in touch with him almost as soon as a player is sidelined. Often, they will apprise Nelson of their plans for the player’s rehabilitation. Sometimes they just seek his counsel. He makes an unlikely first port of call for the most powerful club in the world, but then everything about Nelson’s story is unlikely, and it is only getting started.