Po ovome sto ovaj doktor kaze, Novaku sledi ili operacija i novo visemesecno odsustvovanje sa terena ili penzija.
AusOpen: Where to now for Djokovic?Experienced sports medicine expert Dr Peter Brukner, said that although surgery was among the options, the question that will be asked is: will that help?
“The issue is he’s tried the non-surgical route and that hasn’t worked, clearly, so whether surgery is going to do any better or not is arguable,’’ said Brukner, the professor of sports medicine at La Trobe University, with a long client list that has included AFL, soccer and the Australian cricket team.
“If they thought surgery was the best treatment, they’d have done the six months ago. It sounds like the tissue is pretty degenerative and it’s not that easy to restore degenerative tissue.
“It’s a load issue, really. There’s enormous forces going through those two tendons at the elbow with the topspin and so on, so it’s probably not surprising.
“It’s like an Achilles in a runner or a patellar tendon in a basketballer or a volleyballer. It’s just enormous forces through these tendons and they don’t have a good blood supply, so they take a long time to heal, and that's why we try and find things that help.’
Cortisone typically has been one option, and blood injections among the newer treatments, although the jury is still out as to the effectiveness, and whether it’s the time off and the rehabilitation that actually makes the difference, according to Brukner.
Then there’s surgery, and there’s no doubt that Team Djokovic will be considering every avenue to usher the former world No.1 back to competitive good health.
“Tendons are one of the biggest challenges we have in our area,’’ said Brukner. “Once they’re in trouble, it’s very hard to get them right in a really elite athlete. You’d imagine Novak had the best opinions, the best physios, the best treatment and all that sort of stuff. And that hasn’t enabled it to withstand the load.''