Olympic champion David Rudisha underwent surgery on his left ankle on Thursday, May 28 in Eldoret after incurring an injury at his rural home.
According to a statement sent to newsrooms by his agency, Rudisha was taking a walk in his compound on Tuesday, May 19 at his home in Kilgoris, Narok County when he stepped on uneven ground.
He twisted his ankle, but at first, dismissed the injury as a mild one and continued training before paying a visit to St. Lukes Hospital in Eldoret where he was diagnosed with an ankle fracture.
The surgery carried out by Dr. Victor Bargoria, who is also the Kenyan team doctor, ruled Rudisha out of training for 12 to 16 weeks after which he can resume rehabilitation.
According to the surgeon, the injury was a left ankle fracture (Supination External Rotation) which he fixed with a 1/3rd tubular plate and 3.5mm crews.
"During a walk on the compound the 31-year-old stepped on uneven ground, and initially believed it was not a serious injury. He continued with exercises that wouldn't cause further harm to his ankle but after a lack of improvement over the weekend, he underwent an examination and was diagnosed with an ankle fracture," the statement read in part.
It came as a blow to Rudisha who was training in hopes of competing at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, initially scheduled for 2020 but postponed following the global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rudisha won world admiration after a spectacular run at the 2012 Olympics in London that saw him win gold and break the world record, registering a time of 1:40:91.
“It was the most extraordinary piece of running I have probably ever seen,” Sebastian Coe, IAAF president and two-time Olympic 1,500 metre champion, once remarked about the run.
Four years later, Rudisha did it again at the Olympics in Rio where he bagged the gold and cemented his position among the greatest athletes of all time.
In 2017, however, he forfeited the 2017 World Championships due to an injury even as other unexpected woes befell him. It was during this period that he separated from his wife.
In March 2019, he was shaken by the passing of his father, Daniel Rudisha, at the age of 73 and later that year survived a car accident.
Opening up on the events, Rudisha told the Tokyo 2020 website: “To release it I'd often hang out with friends, partying too much. It's not something you intend to come your way but sometimes, during periods like that, you look for a bit of distraction, to distract yourself.”
He revealed, however, that he was training hard with his mind set on becoming an Olympic legend with a third consecutive gold medal in Tokyo.
