A Rough Season

Whibley for Surgery

2013 has been a pretty rough season for me so far.Many of you may be wondering why my results haven’t been up to my usual standard. Well, I had a pretty hard get off and broke a small bone in my hand earlier in the season. I also suffered a concussion in that practice crash.

But preceding that, back in February I strained my groin. At the time it seemed like any other little injury that is a common place in our sport. I rested it a little and then got back into training. The pain and discomfort seemed to linger and began to worsen as the season began to heat up. Through the course of the season it has progressively deteriorated. It is painful to grip with my knees and I lack core strength to hold my position on a bike. This condition seems to be more prominent in the mud races where my results have obviously suffered. 

A few months back we began seeking medical advice and after several visits to different doctors and specialists a diagnosis of an Athletic Pubuglia or Sports Hernia was given. I went through a course of physical therapy to work on strengthening and increasing flexibility with the hope this would rectify the problem. Unfortunately with little improvement from therapy we returned to the specialist to look at other options. It seems now the next step is surgery.

No dates have been set yet but we are looking at July during the summer break. There is a lengthy recovery time required after this complicated op and as such am not sure how long I will be out of action.

The results so far this season have been disappointing and it is not how I planned to defend my number one plate. It has been tough at the races with all the fans and supporters urging me on and pinning their hopes on me, knowing I can’t deliver the results they want makes it hard to stay positive. 

The hope is from here we can regroup, and return to 100% for the 2014 season.

Thanks to everyone for their continued support.

Stay tuned … Paul.