Cameron Hanley continues battle with major injury problems
Cameron Hanley has undergone 17 operations during the last eight months, four of which he has spent in hospital.
The Irish show jumper is unlikely to be back in the saddle until 2013, and in the meantime will have to restrict his equestrian activities to coaching and finding horses for clients.
Ironically, Cameron’s injuries did not come about as a result of competition, but from a freak accident that occurred while playing in the garden with his children at home in Germany in June of last year.
He explains: “ We were jumping some jumps (on foot) when my knee gave way. I knew straight away something was wrong as my kneecap was about 10 cm higher than it should be.”
It turned out that he had completely ruptured his patella tendon, and was operated on the next day. But he then developed an infection in the knee joint, and the surgeons removed some of the infected tendon and knee membrane.
Cameron explains what happened next: “I then moved hospital and in August the doctors in Hannover performed a tendon transplant using tendon from above the knee and the back of the knee.
“That lasted about eight weeks but then there was a bad reaction and all the transplants had to be removed in November. To be able to move my leg in the future they did something called ‘reconstruction of complete knee extensor mechanism loss with gastrocnemius flaps’.
“This in effect means they replaced the removed tendon with the calf muscle of my right leg. All in all I had 17 operations and spent four months in hospital. The last operation took place on December 20th last year and I’ve been home since January 5th.”
Cameron, who was fourth in the European Champions at Windsor in 2009, represented Ireland at the World Equestrian Games in 2006, and who has jumped for his country on 46 senior Nations’ Cups teams, is now in the dark as to when he’ll be able to compete again.
He says: “I am hoping to start physio soon, but the doctors are unable to give me an estimate of when I will be able to ride again, but it is unlikely that I will be competing this year and I will be concentrating more on coaching and finding horses for people.
“Some of the older horses I was riding, such as Southwind, have been sold and I have some younger horses of my own and that I own together with my brother Carl that are doing well with Alex Duffy, who is now based with Carl in Germany.”
“The whole thing has been a huge blow, and is very frustrating when you can’t do what you love doing, but I believe that when things get difficult the only solution is to maintain a positive attitude.
“I’ve had great support from my wife Evelyn and my children Finn and Niamh and from a lot of other people.”
Cameron is keeping in touch with the Irish team and says he will be at Nations’ Cup shows this year to help out in any way he can.
“My aim now is to be back in the saddle just as soon as I am able, and of course having missed the current one, my ambition is to compete in the 2016 Olympics!” he says.