the withdrawal nobody names
It strikes Schacht as odd that Pemulis makes such a big deal of stopping all substances the day before competitive play but never connects the neurasthenic stomach to any kind of withdrawal or dependence.
Context
The diagnosis the addict cannot make about himself, made instead by a bystander who keeps it to himself: the pre-match sickness Pemulis blames on nerves is, to Schacht's eye, withdrawal — a physical 'drine-dependence with a name Pemulis will not connect to the stomach that betrays him every time. The gap between the ritual (stop everything the day before) and the reading (the stopping is what makes him sick) is the whole clinical shape of a habit the user still calls a choice.