Field hockey player amputates part of his finger to make it to the Olympics

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will begin on July 26 and no athlete wants to miss the biggest event in world sport. So much so that some have taken extreme measures to be present in the French capital.

This is the case of Australian field hockey player Matthew Dawson, who had to make a radical decision to be able to play for his national team in these Olympic Games.

Dawson fractured part of his right ring finger a few weeks ago. An injury that will take several months to recover from, which means he will miss the Paris Olympics with his country.

Something that the 30-year-old obviously has no plans for. That is why he decided to amputate part of his right ring finger so that he could play for Australia in the field hockey discipline.

Doctors treating Dawson’s injury gave him a choice between two options: Rest to recover from his broken finger but miss the Olympics, or the radical option of amputating the top part of his finger so he could attend Paris.

“I didn’t have much time to make a decision,” the player told the Australian channel. 7News before leaving for France. “I made the decision, I called my wife and she said, ‘I don’t want you to make a hasty decision. ’ But I think I had all the information I needed to make a decision not only to play in Paris, but for life after and to give myself the best health,” he added.

The ‘Kookaburras’ manager, Colin Batch, was impressed by his player’s decision. “The best way to recover was to just cut off the end of his finger, so that’s what he decided to do. It’s not something a coach can decide for a player. All credit goes to Matt, he clearly wants to play in Paris,” he explained.

Dawson wants to seek revenge at these Olympic Games. She finished sixth in Rio 2016 with Australia and won the silver medal in Tokyo 2020 after losing the final to Belgium.

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