Sergio Martinez "I was on crutches until Dec 2013! Didn't know if I'd walk again"

i dunno if this wasted before on the site, it's a story is from a month back before the Cotto fight.. basically Martinez was walking on crutches between Oct to Dec 2013 (3 months) and he wasn't sure if he'd even be able to walk properly again during that time! then he goes into a world title fight only a few months later?? Martinez moved his training camp to Miami on April 27, and he will remain there until one week prior to the fight. And although he will complete the usual nine-week training camp to which he is accustomed, he feels lucky to have been cleared to train right on time after a lengthy recovery and a gruesome series of treatments. “I was on crutches for a long time. Until December, I was walking on crutches. I was struggling. I used crutches since my surgery on October 31 until December 18. During all that time I was unable to lean on my right leg at all.” The description of the added injuries seems to justify the harshness of the treatment. “I had a partially torn meniscus. I had a breakage in the femoral capsule, right behind the knee. I had a post-operation infection right before the Murray fight. I had partially broken cartilage, where the cartilage became like a small saw on my tibia. I had an injury in my ligaments as well, a distension of the ligaments. I also had chondromalacia patellae, which is the injury that occurs beneath the kneecap. That’s why they couldn’t find an integral solution, because there were many injuries together. And recovering from that, being 39 years of age, was difficult. But thanks to the doctors I am fine.” And judging by the treatment and the series of surgeries prior to that, it seems that Martinez has a lot to be thankful for. “They did some heavy treatment. They did a procedure to remove cartilage debris and other things from the meniscus area, and they had to regenerate the cartilage. They explained this to me, and it sounded a little bit extreme, but this is what they had to do. They had to provoke a series of micro-fractures on the bone, with something very similar to a needle. “The bone then begins to bleed, and the blood from the bone, depending on the time you let it remain there, either becomes bone again or becomes cartilage, depending on the time you allow the bone to remain immobile. If you allow the blood to sit there and you don’t move the articulation, the blood becomes bone again. But if you move the articulation about 15 or 18 days after that, and you start moving it again and putting pressure on it, the blood becomes cartilage. And that’s what they did. And during that time, I didn’t move my leg but I did just enough work to create more cartilage.” The extreme nature of the procedure, which included the removal of a piece of bone embedded deeply into his tendons, led Martinez to believe that his career was in jeopardy. “At times, the fact that I wasn’t going to make it did cross my mind. I feared I would never walk again. But I always wanted to return to the ring, at least for one last fight. But now, with the way I am seeing my recovery, my position has changed. I am in much better spirits. I changed 100 percent. One thing is to know you have only one leg, and a very different one is to know you have all the weapons you need. I know that on fight night I will be feeling better than ever. It is something that I feel inside me. I feel very happy and motivated, and as long as I feel like that, I know I’ll be OK.” Hearing a fighter indicating that he feels 100 percent before a fight is one of boxing’s foremost clichés, and Martinez did say the same thing in April of last year, before his bout against Martin Murray in Buenos Aires, only to reveal immediately after the fight that he had entered the ring with injuries in his knee and shoulder, adding a broken hand during the action. “With Murray I was feeling 1500 percent,” exaggerates Martinez, “but four days before the fight I injured my knee, and I was not going to go out and say, 'Hey, Martin, guess what? I just injured my knee.'” Martinez says this stressing that the fight was the most anticipated boxing event in his country’s rich history in the sport. “I was not going to suspend that fight with only four days to go. They would have killed me! I could have never set foot in my own country! I thought, 'Dead or alive, I am getting into that ring.' But it was difficult, knowing that four days before the fight I had injured my knee, and one day before the fight my elbow almost came apart, and I couldn’t even lift my left arm, and then in the second round I fractured my hand. I had to struggle a lot, a long, uphill battle, but I thought, ‘I am leaving my heart here, I am leaving my life.’ And I did.” And he seems ready to do it again, this time taking special care of his injuries through a low-impact training regimen which includes riding a bike. “I already fell twice from that thing, so I have to be careful," he said. Martinez used to train on the Oxnard marina using a surf board and a paddle to simply stay afloat and keep his balance, strengthening his knees and ankles in the process, but his legendary fear of water has turned his attention to what he sees as a safer contraption. “I am also using a sort of skateboard, but attached to the ground, mounted on a single spring axis. called proprioception. The strengthening of the muscles is really noticeable.” Nevertheless, Martinez sees the strengthening of his spirit as the main argument for a victory on June 7. “Technically, Cotto will probably be my most accomplished opponent, the most capable one. Kelly Pavlik was a great champion, but he didn’t have the intelligence that Miguel Cotto has. Pavlik had a terrific power, but Cotto is more intelligent. He is a true champion and he is dangerous, but if I am in perfect shape, as I am planning to be, I can’t be worried too much. The reasons for me to say, ‘I am here and I am ready to win’ are not only said in reference to my body. They have to do with my recovery from my injuries and my motivation as well.” http://******.craveonline.com/news/338259-sergio-martinez-i-feared-i-would-never-walk-again