French Open finalist couldn't brush teeth or get dressed during injury hell - EXCLUSIVE
EXCLUSIVE: Karolina Muchova reflected on her 10-month injury layoff ahead of her comeback in Eastbourne.
Karolina Muchova is making her long-awaited return to competition in Eastbourne this week after beating her expected surgery recovery time.
The Czech star had a statement 2023 season, headlined by a French Open final showing, before it was brutally cut short by a wrist problem.
Now back on the circuit after 10 months, the injury-prone world No. 34 is hoping this is the end of her physical woes after telling Express Sport that her latest setback left her unable to brush her teeth or dress herself.
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Muchova is unfortunately no stranger to injury layoffs, though this was her “scariest” one yet. The 27-year-old had never gone under the knife but she was forced to resort to surgery when her wrist failed to heal on its own after five months of rest. Since then, her rehab has been promising and she will play her first match of the year against a qualifier in Eastbourne.
Explaining why she decided to come back now, the former world No. 8 told Express Sport: “Honestly, after the surgery, the goal was to come back August for the hard-court season because that’s what usually it takes to heal the tendon that I had a problem with.
“But the rehab was going so well and I started to practice like seven weeks back I would say. So far, knock on wood, I didn’t have any setback and I could still keep on going and we were adding more and more hours. We had a plan on how to follow up from my surgery and the doctors and physios and everything went well so far.”
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After upping her intensity in training in the last couple of weeks, Muchova and her team agreed that she was ready for Eastbourne, Wimbledon and the Olympics. It’s a surprising turnaround given that her entire arm was in a cast just a few months ago. As a result, the 2023 French Open finalist was virtually bedbound and unable to do ordinary tasks, let alone tough a racket.
“I had six weeks like full wrap up to the shoulder so I couldn’t move it any way and then I had three to four more weeks up to just the elbow,” Muchova said. “So it was like 10 weeks in all, I couldn’t touch [a racket]. I couldn’t brush my teeth or put a shirt on. It was a funny, not funny, time. At the time I couldn’t so I for sure had two, two-and-a-half months without the racket.”
Muchova’s arm was also strapped for six weeks when she originally ended her season after the US Open semi-final. Wrist specialists initially thought that rest followed by strength-building exercises would do the trick but the Czech player soon learned that she needed an operation.
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“That kind of took some time [away] from me unfortunately but nobody knew, nobody could tell do the surgery right away. So there was a little shame I lost a few months but once we travelled to Dubai to try for the tournament, I hit one late forehand and in that moment I’m like, Okay, that was really painful. And [it was] awful moment when I’m like, Okay, now I need a surgery for sure. So then I went back to Czech and did the surgery,” she continued.
Muchova’s 'it is what it is' attitude towards injuries is admirable given that she has been through so much with her body. In 2022, she ended her season after retiring in tears at the French Open and leaving the court in a wheelchair, and she can now poke fun at her poor luck.
“You know, I always tell myself, Okay, this is the last one. And then I’m like, Okay, this is the last one,” she laughed. “So I’m trying to do everything to not get injured but then in my head it’s like, it’s tennis and I feel like everyone is on the edge. And you push to the limits, or I do, and it’s a risk. It can happen any time. So I just take it as it is.”
But that approach didn’t stop Muchova from being fearful of going under the knife. She added: “This one honestly was scary for me because I’ve never had any surgery before and the wrist I feel is like very fragile thing for a tennis player and it’s so tiny and the impact on the ball is very intimate.
“So with this one I was a little bit scared and again, I didn’t know how I would react after surgery. You never know how the surgery will go, there are cases that people never came back. So of course I had some doubts but I trusted the doctor and then all the process of rehabbing and I’m probably lucky I’m here and that I hold the racket again and that feels pretty good.”
It’s still a win for Muchova to be back on court so soon after aiming for an August comeback. And she is carrying her perspective into her comeback as she refuses to put expectations on herself. “I don’t know. I don’t expect much, I’ll see how it goes, take it really match-by-match because obviously training is something that is a different sport than the match so I’ll see how I react after a match and how that’s going to go. I hope I’ll be fine with all that and if not, it’s fine too, and we’ll see,” she smiled.
