Griggs fights to get back on track after mystery infection

AFTER Nick Griggs crossed the line at the European Cross-Country Championships in Turkey to seal a silver medal in the Under-23 Men’s race on December 8, he immediately started looking forward to the indoor season, part of which he was to spend in America.

Fast-forward two months and those plans and hopes have been left in tatters due to a mystery infection in his knee that left the 20 year-old in agony, unable to walk or drive and in hospital for a fortnight during that time.

While the cause of and the actual infection itself remain something of a mystery to Nick and the medical staff who treated him, the Newmills man is fairly sure he picked the condition up in Turkey when he was pushed and fell at the start of the European Championship race, that or he was caught by another runner’s spike, and either one of those led to the next eight weeks of pain and subsequent recovery.

Initially, though, Griggs just put the pain down to a knock and tried to brush it off.

“To be honest, I don’t know what happened and no-one has been able to tell me what has happened fully,” he explained.

“They probably never will do at this stage and we’ll probably never find out. It was just an unfortunate series of events which all started during the race in Turkey.

“The first MRI said it was a bruise, so I thought it was from the fall and then that turned into an infection, but the most logical thing is that I fell, grazed the knee and that became infected because it was sore almost immediately after but I kind of thought it would just go away.

“The next day, it wasn’t normal, but it was okay and I just ignored it and thought it would be okay in a week. So, I trained as normal doing 85-90 mile weeks for three weeks.

“I knew it wasn’t normal, but I thought ‘it’s not that bad, I can still run’, but then I was doing a gym session just before Christmas and it was getting to the point where I couldn’t do exercises.”

He had his final run on December 27 but soon reached the stage where even walking was difficult, so he sought professional advice.

But with his normal physiotherapist unavailable during the festive period, he visited former Manchester United defender, Pat McGibbon, who diagnosed the issue as patellar bursitis.

After that, they managed to reduce the swelling, enabling somewhat normal movement and less pain before he underwent another MRI scan which again showed bruising.

More than bruising

Unfortunately, the issue with his knee flared up once more and he got to the stage where he was unable to drive before he underwent a CT scan, which showed there was more than bruising present and a subsequent MRI scan finally revealed the infection.

Surprisingly, blood tests and a biopsy didn’t show anything specific, and Nick never felt ill at any stage. But he did suffer from a lot of pain and the end result was a two-week stay in Musgrave Park Hospital where he received twice-daily doses of intravenous antibiotics.

“It was weird because it was like there was no indication that it was an infection other than my knee was really sore,” he added. “When it was infected it was really, really sore, I’d wake up in the middle of the night in excruciating pain.

“The last week or 10 days of scans and waiting to be admitted to hospital it was getting worse every day.

“I was in so much pain that I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t walk five steps and I’d wake up in so much pain at night.

“It was just debilitating. I couldn’t put my socks on… it was mad!”

Fortunately, he is now emerging from what was a debilitating condition and while he admits to being a little frustrated and disappointed to have missed the indoor season, during which he was to race at two major events in America, the New Balance Games and the Millrose Games, his over-riding feeling is one of relief because he knows that his ordeal is nearing an end and that his athletics career will live to fight another day.

“I got lucky enough that it was localised to my kneecap,” he said. “I’m lucky that I have access [to private medical help] through Sport NI which I’m so appreciative of.

“It hasn’t spread to the joint, which, in running terms, could wave the end to your career, so fortunately enough it hasn’t spread and I’m back home, I’m allowed to cycle, I’m allowed to walk every other day. I’m now building up gradually.

“I’m hoping to get back running in a few weeks and hopefully I won’t miss the season but if I do, at least, in the long-term, I’ll get back to normal.”

Once he does get back to full training, Nick is still hopeful of qualifying for the World Championships in Tokyo in September, but he feels the under-23 European Championships in Norway in July may come too soon as he and coach, Mark Kirk, are going to take time with his return to full fitness.

“We’re going to focus on qualifying for the World Championships because there’s no point in trying to push too soon in order to be fit for the Under-23 Europeans because it’s about not rushing back.

“It’s going to be pretty full-on and intense, and while it’s so hard to look at the bigger picture, I have to. I can’t afford to rush [back] too early and make it worse than it is.

“It’s a very serious injury I’m lucky to have caught it early and the prognosis is good if I can get it sorted now. So it’s not the end of the world; it’s a sequence of events that happen in life and you have to move on from them.”