PHIL HORROCKS: ROAD TO RECOVERY

When a split-second decision in windsurfing doesn’t go to plan, even the most experienced riders can find themselves facing a serious setback. For Phil Horrocks, what should have been another routine wave sailing session quickly turned into a nightmare, resulting in a brutal foot-strap injury and a complex Lisfranc fracture. We caught up with Phil as he talks us through the moment it happened, the reality of surgery and rehab and the mental challenge of being forced away from the water.

WINDSURF: What did the moment of injury feel like, and did you realise straight away it was serious? 

PHIL HORROCKS: “It was a chunky day, logo high side, onshore and pretty windy, 4m maxed and was getting a bit choppy, but nothing out of the ordinary? I was looking for a wave 360, through the bottom turn and just before getting vert, I thought the wave wasn’t pitching and kind of crumbling so I backed out of it into a regular snap top turn, but somehow with a bit of chop the wave broke earlier than expected and the toe rail of the board snatched up at me and I immediately felt the strap crush and flatten my foot with a pop, pop sound/feel, I got rolled and in the washing machine I knew it was bad. I came up and immediately my foot felt like it was in hot water and started throbbing.  I tried sailing in but made about three seconds and I had to stop, I got towed in by Sam the Kiting instructor at Funsport and I knew it was game over for the foreseeable future….”

WINDSURF: How was your Lisfranc injury diagnosed, and was there anything that surprised you about the process?

PHIL HORROCKS: “The A&E department were great…within three hours I was in and out with X-Rays and a moon boot along with the dreaded news… a Lisfranc injury.  A Lisfranc injury is an injury to the joint in your forefoot where your metatarsals and ligaments join.  It is not always that visible the extent of it, it requires a specialist to diagnose it with an MRI or CT scan and weight bearing X-rays, that followed a week or two later when I met the specialist, it turned out I broke a couple of metatarsal’s and the ligament in-between them, so, it is a bit of a mess!”

WINDSURF: For those that don’t know what is a Lisfranc injury and what is the recovery process?

PHIL HORROCKS: “The reason this injury is so bad is that you need those ligaments in your feet to keep its shape, without them repairing correctly in the right position you can end up with big problems later in life too.  For me that meant surgery.”

WINDSURF: It seems like quite a few windsurfers have had to go through this…have you been speaking to some of the riders who have had the same injury?

PHIL HORROCKS: “It’s a foot-strap injury, once you start talking to people about it, everyone knows someone who’s had one, mostly horror stories of how long its taken them to get back to it, I’m trying to focus on the positive recoveries at the moment.  Marc Pare had a similar thing, he came back pretty good!, Charlie loch is just coming out of his Lisfranc injury and is back on the wing world tour, so there’s a few success stories in there.”

WINDSURF: We heard you already had the operation…how did it go and what is the recovery process…

PHIL HORROCKS: “Both Marc and Charlie had theirs done by a surgeon in Germany, called Sebastian Altenberger, he’s supposedly pretty good at it, he was really helpful to me as he offered his thoughts on my X-rays and we spoke on the phone about my injury and the options available to me, including operational procedures, likely recovery times and what to expect after, that was super helpful and re-assuring knowing a full recovery is possible with the right treatment.  In the end I had tightrope fixation surgery here in the UK and so far everything seems to be going well, obviously I’m going to be a bit slower recovering than the other guys being twice as old! But I’m feeling positive about it so far.”

WINDSURF: How are you coping with being off the water and what have you been doing since the operation?

PHIL HORROCKS: “I’m generally doing ok, There’s been 2 or 3 really good windsurfing days which I was a bit gutted to miss, but, you know I can handle missing a few of them as they’re fairly few anyway, the thing I miss the most is the regularity of getting in the sea, pre-injury I’d be 3-4 times a week in the sea, whether it’s surfing, foiling, parawing, windsurfing and winging.  There’s the craic of learning and doing all these sports too, once you get a sudden stop like that it cuts you off from everything, you don’t see people, you feel pretty unfit all of a sudden, you can’t work and things can look pretty bleak pretty quickly!”

WINDSURF: Is it tough being on crutches etc at home and not being able to drive?

PHIL HORROCKS: “I love being at home, so that bit is easy, we have a nice place with a nice view and I can watch the tide go in and out all day! Yes, it gets a bit samey but it kind of has a lockdown vibe about it too. It happened a couple of weeks before Easter, so the whole family was home and it was really nice, for a bit!  No driving is a pain, we’ve got three kids who are all in football/rugby/cricket/swimming and so on… so poor Maike is not only having to look after four of us, she’s she getting hammered with all the driving too, but she is also an angel and deserves a medal!!”

WINDSURF: What were the toughest phases of rehab, both physically and mentally?

PHIL HORROCKS: “The initial 2 weeks Pre-Op and the first 2 weeks post OP were the worst so far, I literally had to keep my foot in the air the whole time, even whilst sleeping, otherwise the foot would swell and the pain was agony! I couldn’t do anything for myself and that was tough.  I watched a lot of Niche sports in this time, Southern hemisphere Rugby League, golf, IPL Cricket, even Aussie rules (I still have no idea what the rules are on that one!!)  I’m 5 weeks post OP so I’m almost at the weight bearing stage, then it’s another month for walking and light exercise.  Then at 3 months post op its light exercise, and they say return to sports in anything from 5-8 months, but, I know Marc and Charlie were a lot quicker than that so there’s hope yet!”

WINDSURF: When do you hope to be back on the water?

PHIL HORROCKS: “I’m hoping to be on the water strapless foiling by mid-July, we go to Tenerife for the summer again, I think it might come a bit too soon for windsurfing for me, maybe I can do some gentle stuff with the kids but I don’t trust myself to take it easy if I’m on my own kit so I may leave that behind and save it for the autumn.

I’m not sure if I’ll do Rhosneigr and Tiree BWA yet, I’ll have to wait and see, I’m not sure if I’d want to go from zero sailing to competing on a dodgy foot straight away?”

WINDSURF: Will you need to work with coaches or physios before your comeback?

PHIL HORROCKS: “I’m doing some basic mobility stuff now along with floor mat exercises, but nothing weight bearing, once that begins I could do with getting a program together, there’s a lot of info out there that’s free and readily available on Rehab, but its definitely an advantage to have someone watch you perform and coach on your movements, I guess that’s something I should look into more.”

WINDSURF: Are you already imagining what your first session back on the water like? 

PHIL HORROCKS: “I think it is going to be a flat-water wing or para-wing session, something very easy on the body, as far as windsurfing goes I’m looking forward to being 100% fit and going at it full power in the autumn, Magheroarty in the autumn is where my heads leaning towards.”

WINDSURF: Do you feel like this injury will play with your confidence to go big in the future…seems like guys like Marc Pare are still charging?

PHIL HORROCKS: “The weird thing I’m dealing with in my head at the moment is It didn’t feel like I did anything particularly wrong, it didn’t feel like I was in a dangerous situation, I have been in far worse and escaped with nothing, so I guess time will tell whether in that same situation would I do the same thing again?  probably yes…so, I imagine there’ll always be a bit of doubt there.  I have confidence in the surgery and repair that my body will be fixed, so there’s no reason why I can’t go for it again.  I’ve been going for it for 30 years and this is the first major injury I’ve had, ok 2 years ago I did my ankle ligaments in Tiree but that was only 2 months out, this feels more real. So I’ve been lucky so far!”

WINDSURF: What goals have you set for yourself once you are back on the water?

PHIL HORROCKS: “I’m pretty sure I’ll appreciate the bad days more now! I was getting pickier on conditions; I’d take anything now!!

The last few years I’ve been learning various foiling sports which has been fun but there’s nothing like the feeling of riding waves on a windsurfer and I can’t to have that again soon!  See you all out there soon I hope!!”

WINDSURF: Get well soon and we hope to see you back on the water when you are ready!

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