Whoskins
20-01-2007, 06:17 AM
Not enough to kill pain
Margie McDonald
January 20, 2007
The Australian
A SYRINGE full of pain-killing fluid has ruined Wayne Arthurs' farewell Australian Open as the veteran was reduced to tears yesterday.
Arthurs was forced to withdraw from his third round match against American Mardy Fish after only three games when an injection to mask a hip problem before the match took away any feeling in his right leg and his chances of continuing what had been a fairytale goodbye to Melbourne Park.
While Arthurs blamed no-one, he was a broken man.
"I couldn't really believe that this is the way that my last Aussie Open was going to finish," Arthurs said. "It's a major disappointment, really was, because the crowd I could see was building up.
"It was going to be a great afternoon."
Yesterday tournament officials defended the decision to use the pain-killer.
"There is certainly no medical negligence," said the Australian Open's chief medical officer Tim Wood.
The oldest of the 256 players in men's and women's singles here at Melbourne Park, Arthurs had come from two sets down to win his first round match against Austrian Stefan Koubek. He came from a set down to win his second round match over American Zack Fleishman in four.
But that is where he said he aggravated a pre-existing hip muscle problem. He then hurt it again in Thursday evening's doubles match, where he and Peter Luczak lost to Americans Fish and Amer Delic.
Arthurs first knew he was in trouble on Thursday night and yesterday morning he took a trial pain-killing injection given by Gary Zimmerman, from AFL team Western Bulldogs. He went out and practised for an hour and everything felt fine. So 15 minutes before his match with Fish, Arthurs had a second injection administered by Lorenzo Masci of NRL team Melbourne Storm.
The second dosage was a different drug to the first and designed to last three to four hours, according to Wood.
But the experts, while listing the risks and benefits to Arthurs before the shot, did not see his adverse reaction coming.
"Both at the AFL level and my experience here, it's my sixth tournament as chief medical officer, you count up the matches to over 1000, or 1200 matches and this is only the second time we've used local anaesthetic in tennis," Wood said. "So as far as tennis goes, it's an extremely rare occurrence. It's done under exceptional situations."
Arthurs desperately wanted to play. He was told the odds were 1000 to one he could have a bad reaction and after the morning trial, he grew in confidence.
The end result was that he staggered around the court in his opening serve of the match like a drunk. "I had a reaction to the anaesthetic and no co-ordination, no feelings in my right leg at all ... just completely gone on the right side," Arthurs said.
While rare in tennis, the situation is not isolated in sport. In the mid-1990s, Collingwood's Mick McGuane was forced to sit out most of a match against Adelaide after having problems trying to kick the ball. He had a chronic groin complaint and had a local anaesthetic administered. But the results were almost comical as McGuane could hardly put a foot to the ball.
In the 1975 Sydney rugby league grand final between St George and Easts, Dragons and Australia fullback Graeme Langlands had a pain-killing injection that went horribly wrong, deadening the nerves in his leg.
The Test great, who was captain-coach, was reduced to a hobbling mess as Easts won a now infamous match 38-0.
Not that it's much consolation to Arthurs.
Burying his head in a towel as tears streamed down his cheeks yesterday, the bitter memory of a 2001 Davis Cup tie were reborn. Six years ago he cried because he had lost the deciding rubber in the Davis Cup final against France. He had to play Nicolas Escude in the reverse singles because Pat Rafter hurt his shoulder in the doubles.
Once again Arthurs was a victim of circumstances outside his control.
Yesterday Fish, one of Arthurs' good friends on Tour, lamented the sad ending for the Australian.
"It was a really big tournament for him. He is one of the better guys you'll ever meet out on the road. It is a tough way to end," Fish said.
When a light drizzle of rain came across the court while Arthurs took a medical time-out after the warm-up, Fish thought his mate might have some extra time. "I thought if it rains, he can come back and play," Fish said.
Arthurs was thinking the same thing.
"I wanted to battle on. It started to rain. I thought 'Here we go, this is sort of a Godsend here'. It wasn't because it wasn't raining hard enough," Arthurs said. "My body just wouldn't let me run to the ball. I'd see the ball and I just couldn't go where I wanted to. I didn't really want to walk off the court at that moment. But I knew there was nothing I could do."
Arthurs said the hip injury would not prematurely end his ATP career. He has announced he will retire some time in 2007.
Asked if the emotional pain was worse than the physical trauma, it was an easy choice for Arthurs.
"Totally emotional."
But he would not commit to maybe returning for a 10th time in 2008 to finish matters on his own terms. "That's a long way off, a bit of an emotional decision. I don't want to be making decisions like that at the moment," he said.
Margie McDonald
January 20, 2007
The Australian
A SYRINGE full of pain-killing fluid has ruined Wayne Arthurs' farewell Australian Open as the veteran was reduced to tears yesterday.
Arthurs was forced to withdraw from his third round match against American Mardy Fish after only three games when an injection to mask a hip problem before the match took away any feeling in his right leg and his chances of continuing what had been a fairytale goodbye to Melbourne Park.
While Arthurs blamed no-one, he was a broken man.
"I couldn't really believe that this is the way that my last Aussie Open was going to finish," Arthurs said. "It's a major disappointment, really was, because the crowd I could see was building up.
"It was going to be a great afternoon."
Yesterday tournament officials defended the decision to use the pain-killer.
"There is certainly no medical negligence," said the Australian Open's chief medical officer Tim Wood.
The oldest of the 256 players in men's and women's singles here at Melbourne Park, Arthurs had come from two sets down to win his first round match against Austrian Stefan Koubek. He came from a set down to win his second round match over American Zack Fleishman in four.
But that is where he said he aggravated a pre-existing hip muscle problem. He then hurt it again in Thursday evening's doubles match, where he and Peter Luczak lost to Americans Fish and Amer Delic.
Arthurs first knew he was in trouble on Thursday night and yesterday morning he took a trial pain-killing injection given by Gary Zimmerman, from AFL team Western Bulldogs. He went out and practised for an hour and everything felt fine. So 15 minutes before his match with Fish, Arthurs had a second injection administered by Lorenzo Masci of NRL team Melbourne Storm.
The second dosage was a different drug to the first and designed to last three to four hours, according to Wood.
But the experts, while listing the risks and benefits to Arthurs before the shot, did not see his adverse reaction coming.
"Both at the AFL level and my experience here, it's my sixth tournament as chief medical officer, you count up the matches to over 1000, or 1200 matches and this is only the second time we've used local anaesthetic in tennis," Wood said. "So as far as tennis goes, it's an extremely rare occurrence. It's done under exceptional situations."
Arthurs desperately wanted to play. He was told the odds were 1000 to one he could have a bad reaction and after the morning trial, he grew in confidence.
The end result was that he staggered around the court in his opening serve of the match like a drunk. "I had a reaction to the anaesthetic and no co-ordination, no feelings in my right leg at all ... just completely gone on the right side," Arthurs said.
While rare in tennis, the situation is not isolated in sport. In the mid-1990s, Collingwood's Mick McGuane was forced to sit out most of a match against Adelaide after having problems trying to kick the ball. He had a chronic groin complaint and had a local anaesthetic administered. But the results were almost comical as McGuane could hardly put a foot to the ball.
In the 1975 Sydney rugby league grand final between St George and Easts, Dragons and Australia fullback Graeme Langlands had a pain-killing injection that went horribly wrong, deadening the nerves in his leg.
The Test great, who was captain-coach, was reduced to a hobbling mess as Easts won a now infamous match 38-0.
Not that it's much consolation to Arthurs.
Burying his head in a towel as tears streamed down his cheeks yesterday, the bitter memory of a 2001 Davis Cup tie were reborn. Six years ago he cried because he had lost the deciding rubber in the Davis Cup final against France. He had to play Nicolas Escude in the reverse singles because Pat Rafter hurt his shoulder in the doubles.
Once again Arthurs was a victim of circumstances outside his control.
Yesterday Fish, one of Arthurs' good friends on Tour, lamented the sad ending for the Australian.
"It was a really big tournament for him. He is one of the better guys you'll ever meet out on the road. It is a tough way to end," Fish said.
When a light drizzle of rain came across the court while Arthurs took a medical time-out after the warm-up, Fish thought his mate might have some extra time. "I thought if it rains, he can come back and play," Fish said.
Arthurs was thinking the same thing.
"I wanted to battle on. It started to rain. I thought 'Here we go, this is sort of a Godsend here'. It wasn't because it wasn't raining hard enough," Arthurs said. "My body just wouldn't let me run to the ball. I'd see the ball and I just couldn't go where I wanted to. I didn't really want to walk off the court at that moment. But I knew there was nothing I could do."
Arthurs said the hip injury would not prematurely end his ATP career. He has announced he will retire some time in 2007.
Asked if the emotional pain was worse than the physical trauma, it was an easy choice for Arthurs.
"Totally emotional."
But he would not commit to maybe returning for a 10th time in 2008 to finish matters on his own terms. "That's a long way off, a bit of an emotional decision. I don't want to be making decisions like that at the moment," he said.