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In an unsurprising announcement Justine Henin has finally admitted to the world what we’ve long been suspicious of – that he small elbow fracture was a career ending injury.
Today Justin Henin has retired for the final time, just one year after making a comeback. It’s a sad end to her story, spending 6 months of that comeback year working hard to overcome an injury that occurred at Wimbledon.
Henin fell on her outstretched arm in a match against Kim Clijsters and suffered a small avulsion fracture. Elbows are notoriously difficult to heal with such injuries and are high infection risks after surgery (Note – Henin has not had surgery). The nature of the injury has meant that Henin has been carefully watched since the injury to see if, with two hours of therapy a day, she would be able to recover.
It seemed recently the end was near with Henin unable to recapture her form at the Australian Open and said she felt ongoing stiffness was an issue.
“I spent the last days undergoing various medical tests and they have confirmed that my elbow has been damaged by my adventure in Australia.
Today the examinations are clearly and the doctors formally my elbow is too fragile and hurt so that my passion and my profession at high level cannot continue to exist…It is now clear and I accept that my career here…finally ends. Even though it’s hard, very hard, while I came back with tremendous fighting spirit.
After my crash at Wimbledon in June, I knew it would be difficult to come back. But I had decided to keep playing and to give everything to overcome the injury.
In these recent months I have rarely been spared from the pain, those last months were very hard. Time has passed and the doubts have grown and only return to the courts would give me answers. Not the answer I was hoping for…unfortunately.
I’m in shock, of course, even with the work of these past seven months I had to understand there might be a reason for all this…I’m sorry…I had hoped for a different return and dreamed of a different ending.
Thanks for standing by my side during all these years. I will never forget your support and your loyalty.”
