How Andy Murray was hammered, drilled and glued back together to save tennis career
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ANDY MURRAY was hammered, drilled and glued back together in the surgery that saved his tennis career.
The graphic and gory details can be revealed for the first time — and they are sure to make you wince.
A camera crew was given access into the operating room as one of Britain’s greatest sports stars went under the knife to cure a longstanding hip injury.
The documentary shows:
- Doctors painstakingly drilling and shaving his bones as Murray lay unconscious under general anaesthetic.
- The application of superglue to the cap attached to his hip joint.
- A metal implant violently hammered into his body.
- Stitching up the open wound after 2½ hours under the knife.
The hip-resurfacing operation took place on January 28 at the Princess Grace hospital in London, weeks after he thought his career was over.
Though a success, Murray was warned by surgeon Dr Sarah Muirhead-Allwood about potential long-term damage of playing.
Muirhead-Allwood said: “What if I said that if you go back to playing first-class tennis I think you’ve a 15 per cent chance in the first seven years you could destroy the hip?
“That’s what it’s like. It’s not you will or won’t — it’s chances. For seven years of tennis would you take that risk?”
The 60-second eye-watering scenes are revealed in the access-all-areas documentary ‘Andy Murray: Resurfacing’.
The film shows the torture and turmoil the Murray camp went through as he faced the prospect of retirement. Ever since his Wimbledon 2017 exit, Murray struggled to cope with the daily pain of a troublesome hip, grimacing when he put his socks on.
Surgery in January 2018 by Dr John O’Donnell did not fully solve the issue. A desperate Murray tried medication, cortisone injections and procedures to numb down the nerve-endings.
On one trip to see respected Philadelphia reconditioning coach Bill Knowles, the 32-year-old tried kayaking, gymnastics and breakdancing to strengthen his damaged body.
Murray claimed he was “scared” of stopping because he would lose the daily structure of training.
He accepted the end was close after sobbing his eyes out following a 3am singles win over Marius Copil in Washington in August 2018.
In a 5am video clip, Murray said: “My body hurts a lot. I was really emotional at the end of the match because I feel like this is the end.
“My mind doesn’t want to push through the pain barrier anymore. I was just hoping I would feel better than this after 16-17 months.
“I really want to keep going. But my body is telling me ‘no.’”
The former world No 1 broke down again in a transatlantic call to wife, Kim, last December after a frustrating training session in Miami.
Kim said: “It was pretty bleak. He always wanted someone to tell him to stop. In reality, it’s not our place to tell him to stop.
“But I knew that’s what he wanted and that’s why he was calling me. So I just told him ‘You are not happy, you said you would give it to Christmas.’ I was putting the Christmas tree up at home. ‘Just call it a day.’”
Thankfully Murray is now on the road to recovery, notably winning the European Open title in Antwerp last month.
In 2020, he is targeting a return to the Slams in singles action and is capable of “amazing things” according to Kim.
Murray refused to give up on playing and he reveals why tennis means so much — it cured his anxiety attacks as a kid.
The then eight-year-old Scot survived the Dunblane massacre when Thomas Hamilton, who knew Murray’s family, shot dead 16 primary school children and one teacher before killing himself.
Murray saw his parents undergo a tough divorce and felt alone when brother, Jamie, left home as a teenager to train abroad.
Sobbing Murray : “For a year or so, I had lots of anxiety but that came out when I was playing tennis.
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“When I was competing I would get really bad breathing problems.
“My feeling towards tennis is that it’s an escape in some ways because all these things are stuff I’ve bottled up. These are not things that are discussed.
“Tennis allows me to be that child, that has all of these questions, and that’s why tennis is important to me.”
Andy Murray: Resurfacing launches exclusively on on Friday, November 29
