Pittman secret surgery denied
March 19, 2006
AUSTRALIA Commonwealth Games team officials have denied any knowledge of Jana Pittman having had surgery less than a week before the official opening.
The Sunday Herald Sun newspaper today reported Pittman herself told officials she could not participate in last week’s Queen’s Baton Relay as she was on a hospital trolley about to undergo an operation.
“I haven’t heard about that,” said Australia team Chef de Mission John Devitt.
“We’ll let people know if that’s the case but we haven’t been told.”
Pittman’s manager, fiance and coach Chris Rawlinson, also denies the 400m hurdles champion had secret surgery.
Speculation has been that she may have undergone an arthroscopy.
Australia team medical director Peter Fricker, who would need to be made aware of such an event by the track team’s medical staff as a matter of process, did not know of the surgery.
But Professor Fricker said hypothetically an athlete could compete within a week of such surgery, although it was impossible to speculate without details.
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“It is theoretically possible if you’ve had some form of arthroscopy for some form of injury in some athletes, some of them might be able to compete on some occasions,” he said.
AAP
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SOME SORT OF CORTISONE INJECTION, PROBABLY GUIDED WITH ULTRASOUND, kk