John has had a poor run with injuries throughout his time on the Championship Tour suffering ankle and back injuries in the early stages of his pro career. The real nightmare has been with his knees, tearing both of his MCL and ACL’s – Ultimately needing to have surgeries on both knees.
That’s why when John paddled out at G-Land with a knee brace, we were hyper suspicious that something worse happened than what was claimed as a cautionary act. Unfortunately the discomfort he felt in the comp was a torn MCL to his left knee.
The 29-year-old broke the news on his instagram today. “I learned yesterday that the pain I was feeling in G-Land is due to a torn MCL that happened during the event. Hard news for me to accept, and it means I have to officially withdraw from the next @wsl event in El Salvador, and most likely the Brazil event too. This one really hurts to be honest. But, there will always be unforeseen moments out of our control, just have to try and respond in the best way possible. Thank you for the support and messages the last few days.”
The Hawaiian is currently ranked at third on the WSL leaderboard and will most likely be kicked out of the top five after missing the next two events at El-Salvador and Brazil. John’s biggest rival behind Medina in his career have been injuries, the progressive surfing that has continued to amaze the world has come with a cost. Doing floaters on the shallow sections at G-Land wouldn’t have helped his current situation.
Erik Logan and the WSL need to decide on another wildcard, will it be a local surfer, a victim of the mid-year cut or new blood?
