Ironman Matt Poole racing time to be fit for Molokai after severe bursitis threatened to derail campaign

CONSIDERING the alternative, ironman Matt Poole is grateful to be battling bursitis in his bid to be ready for the gruelling Molokai to Oahu paddleboard race.

Ironman Matt Poole has turned to swimming to be fit for Molokai-Oahu paddleboard race after an extreme case of bursitis in his knee. Picture: Glenn Hampson

CONSIDERING the alternative, ironman Matt Poole is grateful to be battling a severe case of bursitis in his bid to be ready for the gruelling Molokai to Oahu paddleboard race.

Poole’s career was on the line earlier this week when doctors feared he had the bone infection osteomyelitis after he landed in hospital for the second time in just over a fortnight.

After picking up a staph infection, most likely during a training paddle in the Seaway, Poole landed in hospital where he was treated with ­antibiotics.

But pushing through the pain to continue to train for the 55km race set the 27-year-old back and he landed in hospital again, with doctors fearing the infection had entered his bone.

“Originally they thought it was osteomyelitis which is quite a severe bone infection and that was almost looking like it was an end-of-a-career injury,’’ said Poole, who felt like a “human dartboard’’ given the number of needles he had for IV fluids and antibiotics during his hospital stay.

“Fortunately after the MRIs I found out it was just really severe bursitis, so it’s really severe inflammation of the knee and basically means I can just about do everything other than board paddle, which isn’t ideal when you’re trying to do a 55km board paddle race.’’

Poole, who snared the prestigious Molokai title in 2014, is desperate to compete again after injury forced him to the sidelines last year.

“It’s hard to throw it all in when you’ve done so much training and you’ve been so focused,’’ he said.

“I was on in 2014 and unfortunately I had to sit on the sidelines with a broken leg after surgery in 2015, so I was pretty hungry to come back and reclaim my title this year.

“I guess when you’re training towards a goal and a purpose, realistically it’s probably not achievable but it’s hard to give up on that right now, so I’m still working towards it.

“At this point, I’ve still got the mindset that I can race, so I’m doubling up on swim training, ski training, doing some light running on the treadmill or the grass track and even a little bit of gym.

“I’m just trying to fill that aerobic fitness without doing any actual board paddling.’’ Poole will fly to Hawaii next Thursday to prepare for the July 31 race but knows he has plenty of obstacles to overcome if he is to attempt the channel crossing.

The first, is the flight itself.

“Hopefully the knee doesn’t blow up and doesn’t get much worse after that,’’ said Poole, who has only in the past 48 hours been able to distinguish his knee cap from the rest of his leg after swelling subsided.

“I’ll have to make a decision once I’ve done a couple of paddles over there, if I get to two or three days out and I literally can’t stay on my board for more than an hour, then there’s not a way I’m going to be able to push my body for five hours in that sort of pain over 55km, it’s just unachievable.’’

Poole said Molokai was “mentally and physically the most taxing, the most demanding’’ of any race he had tackled in his career.

“I daresay I could pull a 15-minute ironman race out on the back of not much fitness if I really had to but with this race, if you haven’t done the work and you haven’t prepared your body to be able to deal with that, you can do far worse injuries and make a tough race like going through hell.

“I certainly don’t want to end my career over the race but at the same time, it’s very hard to not go out there and do what I love.’’