They say the road to Olympic glory is paved with sacrifice. For Australian field hockey star Matt Dawson, he gave up more than most: the top part of a finger on his right hand.
The 30-year-old athlete badly broke his finger after he was hit by a hockey stick during a training session in Perth two weeks ago, perilously close to the 2024 Paris Games.
“First quarter maybe only six minutes in, opposition went to drag-flick the ball in and mishandle and unfortunately my stick and hand was in the end of his swing zone and pretty much took my finger off, which is, yeah, pretty crazy,” he said from Paris on the podcast “Parlez Vous Hockey” on July 20.
“The injury turned out to be a bit more serious than first thought,” he explained. “I tried to stand up pretty quick and eventually sort of passed out lying on the change room floor, probably in a bit of shock to be honest with you.”
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Doctors said his injury would take four to six months to recover, meaning he’d have to miss the Games. Or, he could amputate his finger and make it to the competition. Dawson chose the latter.
He said he called his wife after talking about the amputation with a surgeon and she warned him against making a “rash decision.”
“With all the information I had to make the decision, in a pretty short period of time, I still decided to take it, and I can still have a pretty good functioning life with just a little less finger to worry about,” Dawson said on the podcast.
The surgery ultimately took off about an inch from the end of his right ring finger, just below the top knuckle.
“If taking the top of my finger was the price I had to pay, that’s what I would do. ... [If] we get the gold in the end, it’s not a really big price to pay then.”
Now Dawson is in Paris for his third Olympic appearance with the Kookaburras. Australia’s men’s hockey team will play Argentina Saturday at at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in Paris.
They’re vying for their next gold — the last was in Athens in 2004. Australia has previously won four silver medals (including at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics) and five bronzes in the event.
