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Every professional athlete has suffered more than their share of injuries during their careers. Even the best at their sports have missed significant chunks of time due to being hurt. Just ask Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Surfing is no different as 45-year-old Kelly Slater, a 11-time World Surf League Champion, learned the hard way earlier this week.
While competing at the Corona Open J-Bay in South Africa, Slater suffered an absolutely brutal foot injury.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWuccQ1FO6M/
Slater later posted a photo of his foot’s X-ray to Instagram with the following VERY descriptive caption…
“You ever folded your entire foot backwards? If you try it sometime, this is what it might look like.
I pulled into a barrel this morning and the whitewash bounced the board back into my foot as I hit the closeout, taking all the pressure into the metatarsals. Kinda like smashing my foot with a big hammer as hard as I can. Sorta feels like I’m giving birth out of my foot right now!
I’m guessing surgery and 6 week holiday is in order. Not looking forward to 30 hour flight home before surgery though. Ouch!
It sucks but so many people deal with such horrible things around this world everyday that a broken foot is pretty minor in the scheme of things. Sometimes a bad thing is a good thing. I’ll make the best of my time off. #ThatsGonnaLeaveAMark #INeedElephantTranquilizers.”
Those are some “Rock”-level hashtags right there.
On Wednesday, Slater posted another photo and revealed that it turns out that his injury is going to require a lot more than the “6 week holiday” he had speculated he would need to recover.
“Was really looking forward to more of this today but going twice as fast. It just wasn’t to be. That’s alright. It will keep the fire burning to recreate the lines i missed my chance at.
Thank you #JBay for all the great friends and memories. And a giant 🙏🏽 to everyone sending me well wishes.
The challenge will be healing with awareness, patience and good health. Hopefully ill have some tips to share from my process for any future mishaps you might have. And a huge thanks to all my friends and acquaintances who assisted me yesterday. Not one of the better days in recent memory.
It’s hard to believe I could do this just yesterday. I can’t even touch my foot right now. I’ll find out next week but prognosis is now looking like 4-6 months recovery. 😬💉🔪 #MyFootIsFooked.”
No kidding it is.
Check out some highlights of his run before the injury below…