Triple Olympic champion Stephanie Rice has had a minor setback in her recovery from shoulder surgery last week, with an infection now forcing her to miss training. Rice’s doctor ordered her to avoid training today, “Doc said it was slightly infected. Got some antibiotics and can get into xtraining again tomorrow,” Rice tweeted. Coach Michael Bohl says they’ll now wait until the infection is cleared before deciding when she can swim again, hopefully later this week. Via Herald Sun and The Sydney Morning Herald
(Image courtesy of Kinney Cheng, cc by-nc-nd 2.0)
Bohl according to The Herald Sun:
While Bohl describes the shoulder surgery as a “short term setback” in the lead up to next year’s London Olympics, he admits Rice needs to work hard before the selection trials in March.
“She knows if she doesn’t get a good result there’s no London for her,” Bohl said.
“We’ve got January and February, it’s head down and bum up.”
“But we’re very confident she’ll be in good form by March provided there’s no more setbacks with the shoulder and we can get a good block of work in.”
“We’ve got 12 weeks, it’s not as if there’s only four weeks to go. And she’s got a good 30 weeks of pretty good work behind her.”
“Physiologically she’s still working. She’s at the gym every day, she’s running, bike riding, she’s doing everything but swimming.”
“When she gets back in the pool later this week or early next week, her fitness is at a level that will hold her up well.”
