Tom Curry gives update on his fitness after ‘car crash’ hip injury
Tom Curry for England during the Rugby World Cup in 2023.
England and Sale Sharks back-row Tom Curry is not saying when he plans to return to action after he underwent major hip surgery which is expected to keep him on the sidelines until the 2024/25 season.
The 25-year-old has not been in action since featuring for his country in their bronze final triumph against Argentina at last year’s Rugby World Cup in France.
Six-hour operation
When he returned home from the global tournament, Curry was informed that he had to have a six-hour operation which would address arthritic change and tears to the labrum and cartilage.
The 50-Test international described the injury and the extent of the damage as “a car crash” but, after the successful operation, he is now on the mend and his rehabilitation programme is in full swing.
“In terms of coming back to play, I still don’t really know. It’s day by day,” Curry told Sale Sharks TV.
“The next month is just taking it day by day. Every week it gets better and better. The tough thing is thinking too far ahead and that’s why I need to take each day as it comes.
“Every day I’ll give it 100 per cent and be really grateful that I can do this and then we’ll see.
“If you take a step and your hip feels bad, your mood goes down. If you do that and your hip feels good, your mood goes up. So it is about trying to get rid of all that stuff and keeping it as simple as possible.”
The England star explained the seriousness of his injury and how difficult it was to play rugby after the World Cup.
“We thought it was tight hip flexors, but the time it took to play the games got less and less,” he said.
“I came back and tried to play for Sale and couldn’t really do that so we had it scanned, and found out that there was an arthritic change within the hip; labrum and cartilage tears.
“The radiologist’s report was a long list, a bit of a car crash. But the surgeon went in and was very happy when we came out which gave me a lot of confidence.”
Curry was eventually left with three choices to treat what turned out to be a very serious injury.
“One was to leave it; that wasn’t going to happen the way I was walking and running,” he explained. “Two was [the surgery], and then three was the resurfacing where they put the metal in. I wasn’t ready for that, I wanted to keep my hip. The surgery was the best option of the three.”
Following the successful surgery on his hip, Curry eased himself into the rehabilitation process.
“[The medical staff] wanted me on the bike the day after the surgery,” he said. “After two to three weeks I was able to start gently rehabbing, loosening the hip up. Honestly, straight away you could feel it.
Feeling much better
“As soon as I was able to move it to the side my hip just kept going. It was a refreshing feeling.
“After the scan, the first few weeks were tough because it was just accepting it. There were a lot of unknowns. You are a bit helpless. You have all this information and you are sat there just waiting.
“Once the surgery was done, I was flying. You can start getting better and feeling better.”