"Nick Kyrgios was very depressed" - Surgeon reveals sneaking Aussie into secret surgery to help fix his wrist
Nick Kyrgios was almost on the verge of never playing tennis again going by the extent of his wrist injury, the Aussie's surgeon Dr. Michael Sandow revealed in a recent interview. Thankfully, Dr. Sandow helped him out with a secret surgery procedure, which has fast-tracked Kyrgios on the road to recovery.
Speaking in an interview with the Canberra Times, the surgeon revealed that when he first met the 29-year-old he was very depressed. Kyrgios had played only one match in 2023 at the time, a first-round loss in Stuttgart. After having just come back from a knee injury and rehab, the former World No. 13 sustained the wrist injury almost immediately.
Dr. Sandow further noted that his wrist looked like it might become arthritic soon and that Kyrgios's best-case scenario, at that time, was just to be able to feed himself. However, the surgeon convinced him to go for an ANAFAB procedure (ANAtomical Front And Back reconstruction) in Adelaide.
"When I first talked to Nick, he was very depressed and looking at never playing tennis again," Dr Sandow said. "He had very nasty wrist instability with a tear that can create significant wrist bone collapse and leads inevitably to arthritis."
"He was quite disabled when I first saw him. All he wanted to do was feed himself and do light activities, and the ANAFAB was to be the solution," he added.
The doctor then revealed how he snuck Kyrgios into surgery to avoid the media finding out about the procedure, bringing him to the car parking area and sneakily taking him to the operation theatre.
"It was funny, we actually snuck him in for the surgery and nobody knew. We brought him into the bottom carpark, snuck him to the top floor ward, then to theatre and back to the ward, and no media found out he was in Adelaide for wrist surgery," he said.
"There's no reason he won't have a pretty normal wrist for the rest of his life" - Nick Kyrgios' surgeon
As for his future, Nick Kyrgios' surgeon Dr. Michael Sandow is optimistic, stating in the interview that there was no reason at the moment to think that the Aussie will not enjoy having a normal wrist for the rest of his life after the ANAFAB reconstruction.
"If he was playing football you could tape it up, but in tennis he's putting huge amounts of load through the wrist, and you're looking at a 12-month return date - he's hitting balls at nine months. There's no reason he won't have a pretty normal wrist for the rest of his life," he said.
Having stayed on the sidelines for a long while, the former Wimbledon runner-up is unranked on the ATP Tour now ahead of his impending comeback.