Playing through Pain - a History

A year ago, Graeme wrote about Andy Murray's departure from the French Open. In it he highlighted that whilst Murray has a great deal of talent and ability on a tennis court, it is the mental deficiencies that he seems to possess that have held him back from winning that elusive first Grand Slam. Indeed, there has been further evidence in the past 12 months that have fuelled this particular hypothesis - the dispiriting loss to Novak Djokovic in Australia being the prime example of this.

However, despite the fact that there still exists deficits in his game that separate him from the Holy Trinity of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal, you cannot fault the mental aspect of his game and his sheer guts after Nadal knocked him out in the semi-final at Roland Garros last weekend. This was the furthest Murray had progressed on his weakest surface and he had played the last three and a half games with a crook ankle. The resolve he showed to bounce back from two sets down and an overnight delay against Victor Troicki, when it looked like he wouldn't make it on court at all, was exceptional. His quarter-final against Juan Ignacio Chela was not a vintage performance but it was a straight sets victory all the same - Murray was able to utilise his patient rallying against a technically inferior, although more in-form, opponent, waiting for him to make the mistake, although able to attack if Chela began to dominate. He saved his best tennis for that semi-final against Nadal, but just came up against a man who will ALWAYS be better than him on clay, on any given day. But Murray can take a lot of comfort from this tournament all the same (although he still won't win Wimbledom). To honour his performance, here are five examples from other sports of people excelling in discomfort:

GOLF - Tiger Woods - US Open 2008: Who knows? This could be the last great moment on the golf course from Tiger. After announcing this week that he would not play in this year's US Open, it is clear that Manwhore-gate has left him a changed man. Just three years ago, he was able to play a major with a very dodgy knee and win. Now, I suspect most people will be thinking that injuries in golf wouldn't affect you that much. You try driving the ball over 300 yards, transferring weight onto the joint. Then try walking 4 miles in the sunshine for five days straight, excluding practise rounds. Then have the focus, determination and willpower to blank out the pain and play your shots. Oh and once you've tied for the top spot, play another 18 holes in a playoff against an underdog opponent (Rocco Mediate) who the whole world wants to win instead of you. And then beat him in sudden death once you've played that round. The man is/was a machine and the admiration for this tournament should never be lost.

CRICKET - VVS Laxman - Mohali 2010: The man just loved batting against Australia - 6 previous centuries, including two staggering doubles from the most aesthetically pleasing bat of his generation showed that Laxman could always get himself up for facing the world's best. This was not the best Australian side by a long shot (their next assignment was to get pumped in the Ashes) but the baggy green still acted as though a red rag to a bull. Australia held a slender first innings lead thanks to Shane Watson's 126 and Mitchell Johnson's staggeringly not wayward 5-64. However, as the pitch deteriorated, India gave themselves a sniff by bowling the visitors out for 192 second time around, giving them 216 to win. Laxman had pulled a groin in the Aussie 1st innings and had batted 10 for India, making just 2. However, he was called upon to try and rescue a near-impossible situation on one leg when India were reduced to 76-5. That was soon 124-8, but VVS led the counter-attack with nothing to lose and an unlikely ally in Ishant Sharma, who occupied the crease for the best part of two hours. Who needed to run when you could hit beautiful boundaries like Laxman? Sharma fell 11 runs short, no.11 Pragyan Ojha nearly ran himself out, leading to a scolding from VVS but they squeezed over the line with 1 wicket to spare - Australia's lack of ruthlessness had been exposed, Laxman proved he had true grit to go with the beauty of his strokeplay.

NFL: Jack Youngblood - 1979 Rams post-season: I have to admit this story rather fell into my lap. Whilst doing a little journalistic research into this article, I saw the NFL.com had a "Top 10 Gutsiest Performances" segment of which this was No.1. So I delved a little deeper. And shuddered. LA Rams DE Youngblood broke his leg in the divisional game of the 1979 NFC playoffs, where the Rams upset the Cowboys. X-Rays showed a fractured fibula. Rather than calling the season there, the team captain decided he would just tape it up and get back out there with the troops. Everyone knew about his injury, so he could quite realistically have expected O-Linemen to take a shot at him to increase the pain. However, the Bucs were totally shut out by Youngblood's D-Line in the Championship game, who fell just short to the Steelers in Superbowl XIV. And then Youngblood went off to the Pro Bowl - you wouldn't see modern day footballers doing that if they had a slightly stiff back, let alone a broken leg. The ultimate lad.

Formula 1: Robert Kubica - Canada 2007, Italy 2011: So much bouncebackability he did it twice. First of all this crash in 2007:



Some things are better seen than explained. Kubica missed the next Grand Prix, but came back to finish strongly at the end of the season, beginning to establish the reputation as one of the sport's finest young drivers. Until he smashed into a church whilst rallying in Italy during the off-season, severing his right hand and spending a good couple of months in intensive care as a result. They even sent him some of Pope John Paul II's blood from Poland in an attempt to work a miracle. I would hope that that is not the reason that he is expected back testing before the end of the season and a return to racing in 2011 has still not completely been ruled out. Whatever, he is making a great recovery and clearly has great mental strength to overcome such horrible accidents and get back in a car.

FOOTBALL: Terry Butcher - England vs Sweden 1989: Yes I know it's lazy. But less lazy than citing Bert Trautman as the finest example of footballers playing through injury. We know Trautman broke his neck, but he was a Nazi goalkeeper and therefore was a bit of an idiot. But Butcher was so much cooler because he was fully aware of the extent of his injury, seeping blood out of a headwound. And yet he kept challenging for the ball in the air, soaking his white shirt in blood. England held on for the draw that sealed their birth at Italia 90, the tournament where they achieved most in the modern era - it was Butcher's fighting spirit that embodied the Three Lions on that occasion, and those fighting qualities have never really been replicated by those pulling on the shirt since.

RM