Rugby star 'curled up in a ball and cried' with career-changing news
Tom Curry was told he would “probably have to retire” after a career-threatening hip injury.
The England flanker sustained a hip injury in the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Curry’s season was over when he was told his joint was rugby-ball shaped because of his condition called femoroacetabular impingement syndrome.
The England flanker said he “cried” and “curled up into a ball” after being told the news by a surgeon consulting on the injury sustained.
Tom Curry became the youngest player to start at international level for England in 90 years when he made his senior debut five days before his 19th birthday in Argentina on the 2017 summer tour.
Curry has a 90% tackle success rate and a 97% pass success rate.
He has played 3,711 minutes for his country (pre- Autumn internationals).
“I had a Zoom with the surgeon, and he said you are probably going to retire,” said the 26-year-old.
He underwent a six-hour, challenging operation to fix his hip issue and started rehab almost straight away.
The former Sale Sharks captain returned to play at the start of the 2024/25 season after having to “learn to run again.”
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Post surgery, Curry spoke to his surgeon who said his biggest worry was getting him back, and then the conversation changed to how he can make Curry better as a rugby player.
Curry added: “Every day I'll give it 100 per cent and be really grateful that I can do this.”
Alex Sanderson, Director of Rugby at Sale Sharks, says he wants to ‘protect’ Curry after his freakish injury.
The boss says his team and Curry are being positive about his recovery: “We just want to be really positive and believe in the best-case scenario, not the worst-case scenario so we're just leading to that right now.”
The 26-year-old rugby star, is one of the 17 players to be given ‘enhanced’ contracts, which give the England coaches more control over the players’ training and medical matters.
Sanderson said that he will work closely with the England head coach Steve Borthwick to look at the season as a whole and see how they can best look after the flanker.
Zoë Gerrard, neurological & musculoskeletal physiotherapist and a rugby club physio, gave us an insight to the injury and the recovery process.
“We know the femoroacetabular impingement injury is more common in cutting actions, where moving quickly from side to side is frequent, as well as more likely in the male gender and younger age around 20s.
"You can also relate it further to his actual position as a flanker, the vast power and mechanical demand through that body, for scrums, line outs and tactical play of the field.
“On average you're probably looking at around 7 1/2 months of treatment before return.
“It's favourable for him that he did have that surgical intervention.”
When Curry returned to premiership club Sale Sharks and he also made appearances on the bench for England.
“As a player you're relying on your body to play that sport. It has, a massive effect not only physically, but mentally as well on players.
“It's shown that 87 to 93% of those who have this surgical intervention, can return to their function as they were pre-operatively as well".
“You can't really put a time scale on an early retirement as long as they're still achieving their goals in rehab.”
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