PARIS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Australian field hockey player Matt Dawson has amputated a finger in order to compete at the Paris Olympic Games.
The 30-year-old, silver medal winner in Tokyo 2020 badly broke a finger in his right hand during a training session with the 'Kookaburras' two weeks ago. He visited a plastic surgeon, who told him that recovery after surgery would take months and was not 100 percent certain to return the finger's full use.
Then, Dawson decided to have the finger amputated above the knuckle.
"I'm definitely closer to the end of my career than the start and, who knows, this could be my last Olympics, and if I felt that I could still perform at my best then that's what I was going to do," Dawson told the Parlez Vous Hockey podcast.
"If taking the top of my finger was the price I had to pay, that's what I would do," he added.
The Australian captain, Aran Zalewski admitted Dawson's decision had shocked the team.
"We didn't really know what to think, and then we heard that he went to the hospital and chopped his finger off," he said at a team press conference in Paris.
Meanwhile, coach Colin Batch told Australian TV station, Seven News Network: "I'm not sure I would have done it, but he's done it, so great." ■
