Now THIS is dedication!
You may think you’re committed to your field of expertise, but are you Matthew Dawson committed?! The Australian field hockey player took drastic measures ahead of the Paris Olympics to ensure he could play alongside his team, the Kookaburras. The 30-year-old Olympian almost lost his chance to compete on the world stage when he broke his ring finger on his right hand in a sporting accident just weeks before the Opening Ceremony. But he made sure he didn’t lose his chance!
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According to reports, Matthew decided instead of getting put in a cast and hoping to heal his finger the long way, he just didn’t need the whole appendage! He took it upon himself to completely amputate his digit — because, well, your finger can’t be broken if you don’t have one, we guess…?
Now, prepping for his third ever Olympics, the athlete told 7News about his decision. And he just seems thankful all he lost was a finger:
“I made an informed decision with the plastic surgeon at the time not only for the opportunity to play in Paris but for life after as well. The best option was for me to take the top of my finger off. It’s a bit of a change at the moment and an exciting challenge, I guess. There are plenty of other issues and other people going on with other stuff in their lives that are bigger than losing a finger, so I’m very fortunate that it’s just a little bit of my finger. It would have been a different, tough conversation if it was a bit more, I reckon.”
WTF?! This is one stoic badass! (That or he’s crazy LOLz!)
He went on to say he made the choice pretty dang quickly — out of necessity:
“I didn’t have much time to make the decision. I had made the decision, and then I called my wife, and she said, ‘I don’t want you to make a rash decision,’ but I had all the information I needed to make the decision not for Paris but for life after. Hopefully, I can not take too long to get back to form.”
Wow!
What do U think about this all star’s life-altering choice, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF (below).
[Image via Eyecon Hockey/YouTube]
