The extensionist Juan Martin Del Potro He shared a video on his social networks in which he recounts everything he had to endure and had to live with regarding the injuries that kept him away from the slopes. “After that first surgery (2019), to this day I have never been able to climb a staircase without pain again,” says the 2009 US Open champion.
The achievements of Juan Martin Del Potro in the world of tennis make him one of the most important players in Argentine history. Former world number 3, figure of the championship Davis Cup 2016 —the first and only one in Argentina—, 2009 US Open champion in which final he defeated Roger Federer y silver medalist in the Olympics. Rio 2016 OOamong others.
Between 2013 and 2017 he suffered a series of injuries to his left wrist, but the nightmare, as he himself defines, began in 2018 when he suffered a fracture of the patella of his right knee. From then on he played little or nothing and today he admits to having problems climbing a ladder. In June 2019, he underwent the first of several surgeries, although none gave him the results he expected.
“When I played my last game with Delbonis, people never knew it and I never told it, the next day I took a plane to Switzerland and had another knee operation. That was my fifth surgery. From then on I never did it again. I made my surgeries public because in the press conference before my match with Federico (Delbonis) I said that it will probably be my last match, there I found a little peace with something that constantly happened to me which was ‘Delpo when are you coming back. play? to see a tournament.’ And I couldn’t take it anymore from the pain in my leg,” Del Potro begins his heartfelt story.
“There I said this, I have to do it low profile, in secret. And if it works I will make an announcement that I am really coming back. So I automatically went to Switzerland, I was there for about 2 months locked up in a town near Basel. They operated on me, rehabilitation… and it didn’t work. After 2 and a half months they told me ‘we have another thing left, we are going to operate on you again’. Sixth (operation). After that I went to the United States, I continued rehabilitating. surgery tested treatments, I don’t know, I must have more than 100 injections in my leg and hip and back.. They infiltrated me, they took me out, they analyzed me, they burned my nerves, they blocked my tendons, that is, a daily suffering that in fact I have every day,” continued the Tandil Tower.
“When I had the first operation, the doctor told me ‘in 3 months you will be playing again’. This was in 2019, in June, and I had signed up for the tournaments in Stockholm, Basel and Paris. Because The doctor told me ‘make a note that you arrive well enough to play’. And after that first surgery, to this day I was never able to climb a staircase without pain again.. On a 4-hour trip to Tandil that I make every day, I have to stop at Las Flores, which is halfway there, and stop and stretch my legs. It hurts me many times to sleep, when I turn on my side I wake up because I get punctures that are very ugly. It has been an endless nightmare that every day I keep looking for a solution and looking for doctors and alternatives and I still can’t find it. “It makes me very angry, anguished and helpless when I think about it,” he said. Delpo.
“My daily life is not what I want. I was a very active guy who really liked playing sports. Not only playing tennis, but suddenly they invite me to play soccer and I am the one who carries the mate and sits outside or they go to play paddle tennis and I do the videos. And for me it is terrible. In addition to the fact that from the sporting point of view they took away my hope of doing what I always liked to do, which was playing tennis,” the former tennis player said, disappointed.
“There are times when I don’t have any more energy, the leg thing consumes me a lot. Everything consumes me emotionally, because not only am I in that search to improve, but I also suffer every day.”. I get up and take between 6 and 8 pills. Gastric protector, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, one for anxiety… Afterwards (they tell me) ‘lose weight’, but if the medication makes me gain weight…”, he continued.
“I feel like I won the knee thing, I had surgery 8 times with doctors from all over the world. Every time they gave me the anesthesia I felt like it was going well and that it wasn’t going to hurt anymore. That I was going to be turning around.” to the Dam in Tandil without pain. And after 2 or 3 months I had to call the doctor and tell him that this didn’t work, that I’m the same as always.”said the former ATP number 3.
The recommendation he received from some doctors was to use prostheses, but others tell him that he is too young and that he should wait until he is 50 to do so. “I’m no longer looking to run or play tennis with friends, I’m looking for quality of life. Since I was 31, I haven’t run, I haven’t climbed a ladder, I can’t kick a ball, I’ve never played tennis again.. What am I going to have 15 more years of my life like this so that at 50 they can see if they can give me the prosthesis so that I can live more or less well at 60? I hope one day it will end, because I want to live without pain,” he said. Delpo.
Farewell match vs Djokovic
On December 1 he will play a farewell match at Parque Roca against Novak Djokovic, with whom he maintains a good personal relationship. “I started dieting again, training, losing weight. I want to be in shape, as good as possible. It’s a show to say goodbye, there is no turning back. The final touch was given by Djokovic, which was very generous in accepting it and in being able to come,” thanked the Argentine, who asked that “they show all the love” to the winner of 24 Grand Slams.
Del Potro was very excited about it: “If for at least 2 or 3 hours I can have a little peace in my leg and enjoy something on a tennis court for the last time, it would be something very nice”.
