Irish MMA fighter Ryan Curtis did not have the best start in 2024. The 31-year-old suffered a horrific injury during a training session on 11th January, and since then has been under medical care. Recently, his teammate and Bellator star Leah McCourt appeared in ‘The MMA Hour’, where she revealed the concerning details of Curtis’s injury.
Ryan Curtis is a flyweight professional who has a modest record of five wins and four losses. However, his aforementioned teammate reported that he recently suffered an injury that led him to have no movement in his arms or legs. Since then, very concerning revelations came to light as Leah McCourt opened up about Curtis’ situation.
Ryan Curtis suffered significant damage to his vertebrae
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Leah McCourt revealed what Ryan Curtis had to say about the incident that led to his injury. Apparently, the 31-year-old found himself in a bad position during training, in a body lock. But the most worrying thing that happened was that, later, Curtis’ partner would proceed to land him badly on his head, resulting in the injury. “From what Ryan’s told me, I believe he was in a body lock position and he had his arm trapped and his partner had hipped in and kind of dumped him on his head with his arms trapped,” Leah McCourt told Ariel Helwani.
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She then proceeded to reveal that the doctors were concerned about the injury. They claimed that Ryan Curtis’s injury was similar to a person who’d been in a vehicular accident. “It basically smashed his vertebrae completely… the surgeon said the trauma that happened to his spine and his spinal cord and his vertebrae is that something you’d see from a severe car crash or you falling from the like of a balcony,” McCourt added.
The Bellator star then went on to mention how serious Curtis’s injury could have been. Let’s have a closer look at that front.
Things could have gotten more serious for the flyweight fighter
While the situation is a tough one for Ryan Curtis at the moment, Leah McCourt revealed that things could have gotten much worse. He suffered double vertebral damage, which could have been more serious if the impact had taken place at a higher spot in the body. She further stated, “He dislocated two vertebrae in his neck C4-C5 and C5-C6 and if you could imagine the higher up the vertebrae go the more dangerous it is so it was quite high where Ryan landed on his neck.”
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It wasn’t revealed how many surgeries Ryan Curtis has had so far. But Leah McCourt revealed that he recently underwent one on his spinal cord. Furthermore, it was a rather very serious surgery that could have gone either way. “He ruptured the disc in between these vertebrae and the discs were pressing on his spinal cord, which was dislocated. So he had to have surgery to fix this… the most severe and the most dangerous surgery that he could do,” McCourt added.
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It appears that it would be a long road to recovery for Ryan Curtis. Due to the uncertainty that surrounds his situation at the moment, there could be doubts about the future of his MMA career. Nevertheless, getting healthy is what matters for Curtis, his family, and his friends at the moment.
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With Conor McGregor extending his support to his fellow Irishman, it remains to be seen how much time the flyweight fighter takes to get back to 100 percent.