NOT content with his miracle Commonwealth medal, hammer thrower Mark Dry yesterday set his sights on becoming the sport’s bionic man. The 30-year-old boarded a flight back to Scotland yesterday, with his first port of call set to be a medical specialist to get an appointment for a hip replacement. Usually that would be a career ender for a sportsman who puts such strain on the joint but the bronze medallist revealed last night that he hopes to be one of the first to benefit from a pioneering new ceramic hip which it is hoped could see him make a full recovery and compete at the same level again. If this genial giant rocks up in Birmingham to rack up his third successive Commonwealth bronze medal then it really would be a miracle.
“We’ve done everything - stem cell treatment and everything else you can think of to repair the ball in the hip socket,” said Dry. “So all we can do is replace it. I’m going to need the hip replacement. Just the left one. The right side is damaged – but not so badly.
“Can I compete with it?” he added. “This is the thing. Hopefully it’s going to be a new sports hip that is just about to be produced. I’m going to be one of the first people ever to have it fitted.
“It’s some new ceramic. A lot of Masters athletes have come back and competed, and done a lot of training, on it. But nobody has made the full competitive recovery with a replacement.
“That’s the whole point of this, to make that possible. Not a lot of people will need this. It’s designed for people like me. Former sports people, footballers who have had car crashes or whatever, if they shatter that hip joint then it’s career over. Now there might be another option. So I am going to be one of the pioneers.”
Even if that full recovery never materialises, Dry will retire from track and field content with his career. He still wants more, but the pain he feels each day is such that something has got to give.
“The last two years have been bad,” he said. “I’ve been in pain every single day. I haven’t been able to sleep. I have to sleep with a pillow between my legs – and I can’t remember the last time I slept for more than six hours. Because you wake up every hour, every time you move in bed, when it catches and twists. I can’t tie my shoes because, if I bend over, I have to push my leg out to get back up – it gets tiring day after day.I can feel the inflammation all the time and I’m just exhausted all the time.
“If this is the end, fine. I’m at peace with that,” Dry added “I’ve got two medals now – and this one is a miracle. I’ve been to the Olympics and World Championships, competed in pretty much every championships I could go to. And I’ve had a good career. We can’t all be Jess Ennis, can’t all be the big name. But I’ve fought hard and I’m proud of what I’ve done.”
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