VOLVO MONTE-CARLO OPEN

April 26, 1995

Claude Couderc

DR. COUDERC: First, you might be wondering why we have been so long in giving you information, but, you know, that Sampras had a problem with a sprained ankle and we wanted to see the X-rays before giving you any precise information. So first of all, I can tell you that the diagnosis is reassuring. We were afraid, given the pain he was feeling, that there would be a break, a fracture, and this is not the case. So it is a sprained ankle. It is difficult to evaluate exactly how bad it is, because he feels a lot of pain. And then we practiced an IRM and we saw that it was an anterior sprain in the ankle. It is not an external one and not an internal one. I saw the movement on TV with his foot and I can tell you that the foot went in a forward movement and this extended the capsule. And there is a bruise at that level and we don't know whether it is torn or not. So with the IRM we also were able to see that there is a lesion for the flexive tendons because, as you know, the foot has two different movements; one is an extensive movement, the other one is a flexive movement. And there is a lesion for the flexive tendons, a small one.

DR. COUDERC: For me, it is an average one. The problem with that type of problem is that it might lead to an instability of the ankle later on. And normally, I can say for this particular injury, it shouldn't bring instability, but the problem is that it is very painful. And the question is to know how to cure him as soon as possible so he can run again and play again. I know that the questions that all the doctors ask themselves and the journalists is to know for how long will he be stopped. But in two hours we were able to make an X-ray, a scanner, and echography, and IRM, so we have been efficient. It is difficult for the time being to say whether it is going to last one week, two weeks or three weeks.

DR. COUDERC: I would say he will have to rest completely for two weeks.

DR. COUDERC: I didn't leave him for the past hours and we didn't talk about the rest yet. But I think he knows it is going to be about two weeks. It is an average. The problem for him is to know whether he stays here or whether he goes back to the United States. I think he will rapidly go back to the United States because he knows he is going to be outside the tournaments for two weeks and therefore he will spend his time getting cured. But I advised him to stay here for the first days because in 24 hours, 48 hours, we can help him to avoid the bruise around the ankle and he will recover a lot better if we do that. And I told him it was better that he did not go into a plane tomorrow. But of course, it is up do him to decide.

DR. COUDERC: I can tell you that we saw that it was 15 millimeters wide, but the examination was taken one hour after the injury and we did everything we could to limit the extension of this bruise. And I can't tell you now if it has spread or if it stayed the same.

DR. COUDERC: Well, we are doing icing and strapping in order to maintain his ankle straight. We advised him to use crutches so that he wouldn't use his foot in order not to make the bruise worse, and we called that a relative immobilization.

DR. COUDERC: I saw him a quarter of an hour ago and the pain was decreaseing, but it was still there. It is typical from this kind of injury. You saw him try to walk on the court; normally sometimes we can put a tape on and the player can continue playing for a little while. But in this case, the pain was so acute that he had a partial impossibility to walk. And we saw that he had trouble taking his shoe off. Of course, now we are reassured by the X-ray, so it is better. We will give you more information tomorrow.