Torn meniscus to Olympic Gold in just one month

Anyone who knows anything about tennis will know that his career has seen him rise up again and again against the great hitters of the last 15 years, fighting for supremacy over the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

What is really interesting is that he rose to the pinnacle of tennis prowess in spite of an injury that could have been career-ending for a player of his calibre. How did he do it?

Novak has been playing tennis obsessively since he was a child. As he rose through the ranks, he would have had the best training and physiotherapy around – but like any professional sportsperson, he was at constant risk of injury from trauma or overuse.

Elbow injury – 2017

In 2017, an elbow injury threatened to spell the end of his meteoric career – forcing him to take a complete hiatus from tennis halfway through the season.

‘The injury was certainly a big turning point in my life, not only in my tennis career, but also in defining the type of person that I am,’ says Djokovic. ‘It made me look deep within those moments and perhaps find something new about me which wasn’t so clear to see – even for me – over the preceding few years.’

The tennis player has long been an advocate of self healing and allowing the body to overcome injury and illness itself (he’s famously against Covid vaccinations), and the severity of the elbow injury was a major challenge to his belief in natural solutions.

Denial

In fact, his determination to let his body heal itself could have been one of the reasons that the injury became so severe in the first place. He had been suffering from the symptoms of the injury for many years and even had to adapt his serve style to compensate for the injury.

In fact, his refusal to accept medical intervention was the eventual reason for his parting of ways with coach Andre Agassi: ‘When I saw the results of his MRIs in August,’ said Agassi in 2018, ‘I was very clear with him: I advocated surgery right away, because that could end the issue once and for all.”

Eventually, the pain was so extreme that Djokovic had no choice but to stop playing. He decided to rest completely for six months in the hope that the joint would heal itself. But after that period of rest, there was no improvement, and the Serbian superstar decided that he would have to take the advice of the medical experts and have an operation.

Self determination

Agassi made a very important point about his client at the end of their professional relationship – and it’s one that has relevance to many people facing surgery or medical intervention. He said that Novak’s nature is such that he needs to feel in control of the decisions and actions being made about his body: “He’s just that kind of guy,” explained Agassi, “Who needs ownership over his own process. So, if he’s not having the energy or the strength, that’s something he’ll figure out on his own. I’ve always believed in strength training, I’ve always believed in eating a healthy range and a quantity of protein. But for years, he did it his own way.”

After Djokovic had his operation, he went from being 22 in the world to winning Wimbledon the next summer. He admits he struggled psychologically after the surgery, because he had gone against his beliefs about self healing: “I cried after I had the surgery on my elbow. Every time I thought about what I did, I felt like I had failed myself.”

Stubbornness

But there’s a reason that players like Djokovic reach those dizzying heights of success – and stay there. It’s mental resilience, some might say stubbornness. The fact that he succumbed to medical advice against his instincts was hard to handle – but he knew that he had to move on: “Luckily for me the surgery was done right, very well. But I was feeling guilty for maybe a month or two afterwards – through March and April this year.

“And then there was one point where I was like, ‘okay, right, I just have to accept that what’s done is done, you can’t reverse time to change events’. I could choose to be grateful or I could be resentful, and I didn’t want to be trapped in that emotion.”

By November 2018, he was World No. 1 again, tipping an injured Nadal from the top spot.

Novak still believes he could have prevented the need for surgery if he had properly rested the elbow when symptoms first appeared. But instead, he was constantly looking for quick fixes – short periods of rest, adapting his serve and taking copious anti-inflammatories.

After two years of this, there was no option for recovery through rest, and surgery was the only way that he could continue playing. It was a learning curve for him, though, and possibly something that has given him the mental resilience and physical self awareness to keep on hitting his way to Grand Slam success in the ensuing six years.

As he said, back in 2018, “I am a better person now, and a stronger person, and this all came from a position of weakness.”

Knee injury – 2024

After six years of ultimate physical prowess, Novak injured himself at Roland Garros in May 2024. Halfway through a match in the fourth round, he tore his meniscus. After his experience with his elbow, Novak immediately sought advice and an MRI showed that he had torn his meniscus.

He was advised by numerous orthopaedic surgeons to have a partial meniscectomy – an arthroscopic procedure that has a very high success rate. As Agassi had pointed out all those years ago, it was important for Novak to feel that he had agency in the decision – as he comments: ‘I was actually advising myself with all the orthopaedic doctors around the world and they all said the same thing.’ He was taking control of the situation, and that enabled him to get his head around having surgery – after he had publicly stated he would never have another operation after his elbow surgery.

Extraordinarily, he was back on the court just a month after the meniscectomy – reaching the Wimbledon finals with ease. Although he lost the thrilling match against Alcaraz, his fitness and strength were flawless.

Just one month later, he won the treasured gold medal at the Olympics.

There can be very few athletes who have recovered so quickly and decisively after a torn meniscus and meniscectomy, and we have to assume that Djokovic has altered his views about the benefits of orthopaedic surgery when all other non-invasive treatments have been ruled out.

US Open – August 2024

Less than a month after winning Gold at Paris Olympics, Novak was thrust into the next Grand Slam – the US Open. After getting knocked out of the tournament in the third round, he blamed the physical and mental exhaustion of playing at the Olympics, saying that he ‘didn’t have any physical issues’ – clearly allaying fears that his knee might be giving him trouble.