Mick Fanning, Split Down The Middle
Mick Fanning, Split Down The Middle
While perhaps not technically an anal injury, Mick Fanning’s hamstring tear in 2004 did concern the immediately surrounding area, and also involved the surgical opening of a new batty-crease. This was no ordinary hamstring tear: on a boat trip in Indonesia, Fanning tore his entire hamstring muscle clean off the pelvis bone, ripping the ligaments that attach it to the buttocks. He described the subsequent operation to Surfer in the following terms: “They slice the back of your arse open and peel it back. Then they drill into your arse bone and put, like, a grappling hook in there. It’s so strong, the doctor said he was lifting me off the table just with the hook. And then they sew the ligament on to the grappling hook.”
The injury occurred when Mick’s back foot slipped off the tail as he landed in the flats; his front foot meanwhile hung on to the deck, causing him to do the splits. Fittingly enough, the manoeuvre he fell on was a floater. “It’s been fuckin hard, I can’t shit properly,” he revealed in an interview during the early stages of his recovery. “When I do a shit I have to go and have a shower. Can’t sit down on the toilet, I’ve got this special slide thing it’s called. Fuck!” And that wasn’t the only activity complicated by the injury: “Um, GIRLS!! Come over and help me!” He was out of the water for six months, but after his return from injury won the first event he competed in, the Gold Coast Pro that kicked off the 2005 season.
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