Caroline Garcia makes brutally honest admission about players being expected to play through pain: "Have we taken sports too far?"

Caroline Garcia shared criticism on the perceptions and expectations surrounding athletes playing through pain. According to Garcia, when athletes play through pain, it is perceived as an honorable act, and this leads to expectations that all athletes should do the same, irrespective of their physical conditions.

On Monday, May 5, the former WTA No. 4 penned a lengthy and thought-provoking post on X. She started by citing a remark about her current inactivity on the WTA Tour. The Frenchwoman went on to explain the difficulties she is currently experiencing, preventing her from featuring in competitive action. Garcia's last match was a second-round loss to Iga Swiatek at this year's Miami Open.

"“If you really cared, you’d play through the pain.” Someone said this to me a few weeks ago after I explained I wasn't ready to compete. This isn't an attack on any individual, but rather a reflection on a mindset athletes are conditioned into from a young age: playing injured is somehow honorable or necessary," Garcia wrote.

"Recently, I've been relying heavily on anti-inflammatories just to manage the pain in my shoulder. Without them, the pain is unbearable. Over the past few months, I've received corticoid injections, plasma treatments, and other therapies just to keep competing," she added later.

Next, Caroline Garcia brought up some pertinent questions related to how much athletes should push themselves physically just to be in a state to compete.

"I'm not sharing this for sympathy or to highlight toughness. Maybe the opposite. I'm questioning: Is it truly worth pushing our bodies to such extremes? Is enduring chronic pain in your forties—an outcome of years spent pushing athletic limits—something to be celebrated, or have we collectively taken sports too far?" Garcia asked.

Read the 31-year-old's X post in its entirety by expanding the embedded link below:

In September last year, Garcia disclosed the mental health issues that prompted her to cut short her participation on the WTA Tour in 2024.

Caroline Garcia cited "anxiety" and "panic attacks" as reasons behind ending 2024 tennis season prematurely

Caroline Garcia at the 2025 Australian Open (Source: Getty)

Following her participation at a WTA 500 event in Guadalajara last year, Caroline Garcia announced that she wouldn't play in further 2024 tournaments. The Frenchwoman made the announcement via an elaborate post on X, part of which read:

"I’m exhausted from the anxiety, the panic attacks, the tears before matches. Tired of missing out on family moments and never having a place to truly call home. I’m tired of living in a world where my worth is measured by last week’s results, my ranking, or my unforced errors."

Concerned by Garcia's post, tennis greats such as Tracy Austin and Boris Becker came to her support. The Frenchwoman returned to competitive action at this year's Australian Open, where she fell to a first-round defeat at the hands of Naomi Osaka.

The former No. 4 is ranked in 130th place on the WTA Tour's singles rankings right now. She has a win-loss record of 3-6 so far this year.