It's hard to come back and play when you've gone through surgery.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've gone through back surgery a couple times, and of course, my radiation treatments for six weeks got me to the point where I was not able to play at the level that I was accustomed to.
You have no confidence when you come out of surgery because you can't really do anything. You're like, 'Man, am I ever going to heal?'
Surgery is a complicated thing to talk about, but I guess it could also be a dangerous thing to play with if you're not very secure about what you're doing.
I struggled quite a long time with my backhand, which was one of my best weapons before my surgery. It took me a long time until I regained full confidence in it again and only tried to keep the ball in play at the start of the '09 season.
In the past I've had a bad injury, and then struggled when I've got back because I've been unfit.
I knew I needed surgery and I didn't want to have it and I ended up having it.
Whenever you're coming off a serious injury, it takes time to heal.
But in 2000, the injuries really started to kick in and my elbow gave a lot of problems. At the end of the year I had to take 20 months off before I could come back into the game.
I don't have to talk to a surgeon to play a surgeon, you know what I mean?
When you play a doctor, you have to look like you can do it but you don't actually go and do it. It's not like you learn how to cut open somebody and go do surgery. You have to think of a human being and not play the idea of what that would look like.