THAT MOMENT THE BABYFACE ASSASSIN STEPPED BACK ON COURT….
I cannot believe I was able to speak and interview my Karim Abdel Gawad after a match again. His sense of humour, his humility and his talent are second to none. As his opponent Auguste Dussourd stated, “We need him back on the Tour”…
I had ten very tough months. Very very very tough ten months.
I had to travel every couple of weeks for PRP injections in the foot. Then come back to Egypt, not allowed to move at all, I had to lay down and not do anything at all. And if I like sitting down and not do too much, I HATE IT NOW!!!
I’m glad I’m back, I missed squash, and after the tough times, I’m enjoying those moments on court.
Until the very end of the treatment, I didn’t know if I was coming back on Tour or not. The doctor didn’t either. He told me ‘you know, cases like yours we only read about them in books and at college, and in my 40 years’ career, I never had to treat something as bad. The worst I had was hard inflammation but it never happened that it actually tore completely.
“To be completely honest with you’ he continued ‘it’s 50/50. There are only two things we can do: PRP or surgery. Surgery has got about 20% success rate, and if it doesn’t work, you can’t do PRP.”
So I decided to go for the PRP, 4 injections in 4 months and to be honest I didn’t know if it was going to work or not. After those two months, we had to wait another 2 months for the MRI. ‘It worked’ my surgeon said, but the tissues are very soft, don’t do anything for another two months!
Even when I started playing a bit again, I didn’t know what to expect. I still had pain, so I kept texting him, but he told me that it was ok, that the tissues had to adapt, that I had to keep working, that it would hurt, just not putting too much pressure for the first two months, and then we will see how it goes.
But now, it’s so much better, I didn’t feel any pain for the past 2 months. Elhamdoulillah, I’m ok. Of course, I’m 100% sure that I will feel pain again, but I’m used to it now. The only thing I know is that I am back on court, an that’s something I was dreaming about.
