The bizarre solution to Michael Hooper’s injury keeping his Olympic Games dream alive

Former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper believes he has revived his chances of being selected for Australia’s sevens squad for the Olympic Games in Paris by coming up with a bizarre solution to overcome an injury setback.

Two weeks ago, it was revealed that the legendary openside flanker, who announced his switch to the shortened version of the game at the end of last year, is suffering from osteitis pubis, which is inflammation of his groin.

Hooper was told to rest to give himself the best chance of being in contention for Australia’s sevens team for the Olympics which takes place on July 24 and 25.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

The 32-year-old has followed that advice but revealed the difficulty he has endured in dealing with the injury, especially when he was sleeping at night and led to him having thoughts of purchasing a new mattress.

“I’m having agony, like waking up at two, three (am) in the morning. Groin region – it’s like someone’s hit you in the nuts,” Hooper said on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts show.

“And so then I’d have to lie on my back because I couldn’t lie on my side because that hurts. So then my back started getting problems.”

Michael Hooper’s Olympic Games dream suffers another setback

The 125-Test veteran then had a conversation about his painful situation with a physio who told him a new mattress “won’t change it.”

However, Hooper backed his initial instinct and he is sleeping more peacefully since then.

“I put up with two weeks of this thing. So I had enough one morning, about 3am I just bought a new bed that would be shipped in that day,” he added.

“And that seems to have solved the problem… it’s seemingly worked. Now, it’s also coincided with not training for 10 days. So, chicken and egg stuff here.”

Hoping to be fully fit

Hooper is hoping to return to full fitness so that he can be involved in trial matches against Fiji this month before Australia sevens coach John Manenti names his squad for the Olympics in early July.

“If you see Michael Hooper trying to check a mattress into oversized baggage, you know he’s in the Olympics, that’s it,” quipped former Wallabies centre Morgan Turinui in reaction to his story.

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