Matt Dawson - an Australian field hockey player - has confirmed that he had the top part of his finger amputated in order to ensure that he could compete at this summer's Olympics.
The 30-year-old suffered a serious injury to a digit on his right hand two weeks ago, and it has been revealed that he decided against surgery, which would have ruled him out of the Paris Games.
Dawson instead had his finger removed from the knuckle up to ensure that he would be able to feature for Australia at the competition in the French capital, as he was told that recovery from the amputation would have been possible within 10 days.
"I'm definitely closer to the end of my career than the start and, who knows, this could be my last [Olympics], and if I felt that I could still perform at my best then that's what I was going to do," he told the Parlez Vous Hockey podcast.
"If taking the top of my finger was the price I had to pay, that's what I would do."
Team captain Aran Zalewski added: "We didn't really know what to think, and then we heard that he went to the hospital and chopped his finger off, which was pretty interesting because I know people would give an arm and a leg and even a little bit of finger to be here sometimes.
"When you've spent a lifetime of choice and sacrifice to come and compete at the highest level, I think for him it was an easy decision."
Dawson is set to feature when Australia open their tournament against Argentina on Saturday. body check tags ::
