On Monday, Juan Martin Del Potro will make yet another comeback. This will be the Argentine’s third attempted comeback in three years and if this one is not successful then it seems likely that there will be no more.

It was in 2009 that Del Potro announced himself to the world when he won his maiden grand slam title; on his way to his US Open victory, he crushed Rafael Nadal in straight sets with the loss of just six games before coming back from a set and a break down to defeat the world No.1, Roger Federer, in the final.

It looked like Del Potro, who was only twenty at the time of his win, was the next real superstar of tennis. He was hailed as a future world No.1 and was predicted to rack up many more grand slam victories.

But, as every athlete knows only too well, sport often does not stick to the script. At the start of 2010, just a few months after his US Open victory, Del Potro was forced to withdraw from his first tournament of the season due to a wrist injury.

When it had not recovered by May, he decided to have surgery meaning the Argentine was unable to defend his US Open title that September.

This was just the beginning of Del Potro’s woes though. He returned to the ATP Tour, even managing to win bronze at the London Olympics but the closest he came to replicating his grand slam success was reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 2013. The following year, 2014, was where it would all go severely wrong for the player who was once touted as the future of men’s tennis. At the Australia Open, he received treatment for a left wrist injury which, after failing to heal, would require surgery just a month later. He missed the rest of the season, only returning to the Tour at the start of the 2015 season but a reoccurrence of the injury forced his retirement from the 2015 Australian Open. Two more wrist operations in 2015 meant that Del Potro was not seen again for the remainder of the year and this is why his latest competitive comeback, at Delray Beach on Monday, has generated so much excitement.

The Argentine, unquestionably, has the makings of a player who can beat the very best and such is his ability to hit players off the court, it is possible that he could even threaten the seemingly untouchable Novak Djokovic. There is little doubt that a successful comeback by Del Potro would enrich the sport but is it possible to return to the top after such a prolonged lay-off? Few athletes are able to replicate the form that previously took them to the top of their sport after missing so many months of competitive action.

But the more worrying thing for Del Potro is not, in fact, whether his tennis is good enough but rather, his main concern should be why he is quite so injury prone. The 27 year-old has an abundance of talent but, to date, his body has not held its side of the bargain.

This is an interesting conundrum for an elite athlete – why are some individuals more injury-prone than others? Research has emerged in recent years that suggests that certain athletes may be more prone to injury than others because of their genetic make-up.

Several studies have looked at the variations in the genes which control the production of collagen, which is basically the substance that holds the body together. Collagen is the main structural protein in the human body and is the primary component of tendons and ligaments as well as forming the backbone of tissues and bones.

However, it has been found that structural differences in these proteins in certain individuals can leave the structures of the body weaker or unable to repair themselves suitably after injury. A 2009 British Medical Journal study found that those who were low in a particular variation of a collagen gene were more likely to suffer a traumatic ACL injury than those who had it. And of the individuals who had torn their ACL, they were four times as likely to have a blood relative who had also suffered the same injury suggesting that genetics have at least some part to play when it comes to this injury.

Also, a rare genotype was identified and it was concluded that individuals who possessed this variation were extremely unlikely to suffer a traumatic tendon or ligament injury.

This evidence is, in no way, conclusive and neither does it suggest how to prevent injury from occurring. Perhaps a greater awareness of the causes of injury and a more accurate identification of those who are more susceptible to injury would be helpful in designing training programmes.

But more than anything, the suggestion that genetics plays a part in athletes being injury prone promotes the idea that some athletes are born to be champions. And others are not.