Former World’s No.1, Caroline Wozniacki has had a tumultuous journey off the court with regards to her health. While her comeback lately has been a huge focus of discussion, there is a lot to her story that is under wraps. She recently appeared on a podcast with The Game Changers to shed some light on many things that fans were unaware of. A part of this podcast took her back in time to when she turned a critical chapter surrounding her health.
In the world of tennis, Wozniacki has done it all. She has won many titles and even became the No.1. Achieving all this glory is no small feat. In her journey of making her name recognizable, she also faced a lot of hurdles. This podcast focused on some of those challenges.
A dreadful night for Caroline Wozniacki
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It seems like athletes have some sort of premium subscription when it comes to mind and body connection. Wozniacki while talking about the subject in question began by saying: “So I had won the Australian Open in 2018. And after the Australian Open, I just started kind of feeling on and off a little, you know, not great with my body, but I couldn’t really put a finger on it.” Even though she sidelined her gut feeling for the time being after the Australian Open, it is still interesting that she immediately knew something was wrong.
Wozniacki then started unveiling the actual details of what happened. In her words: “It wasn’t until I got to Montreal and I had played my match, I’d played three hours. And I lost that match. And I was a little bit upset. So I went back to the hotel.” She described that after this match she still didn’t go and get checked.
She thought she would soon recover from whatever it was. “I wake up in the morning and I just look over at my husband I go “I don’t know what’s going on. There’s something completely wrong.” And he goes, “What do you mean?” And I’m like, “I can’t move” and he goes, “Oh, you’re just sore from the match.” And I go, “No, no, there’s something off. I literally can’t move. I’m in so much pain.” This was the moment when she was certain there was something wrong with her body.
Her husband, a former NBA star, David Lee was worried as he told her: “That’s not normal because you have a pretty high pain tolerance. If you say that there’s something off like what is happening?” and helped her out of the bed. She finally accepted her situation as she said: “It was so painful. My hands, my shoulders. Everything was just it felt like everything was out of the socket.” It was perhaps a big reality check the Wozniacki’s body was succumbing to the demanding nature of the sport.
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How Wozniacki got diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Lee knew it was important to consult a professional as per Caroline’s statement: “It just didn’t feel right. And I was exhausted and He’s like, “We need to see a doctor.” When they finally went to see a doctor, it was a series of disappointments. Some said that maybe she was pregnant, while some gave her weird explanations for her symptoms. It wasn’t until Caroline decided to get an appointment with a trusted doctor in New York that she got her answers.
After multiple tests and bloodwork reports, the doctor was able to close the symptoms within the bounds of some kind of auto-immune disease. However, Wozniacki had to see another doctor who belonged to this specialty. At that point, she got to know it was Rheumatoid arthritis.
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This is a perfect example of how ignoring your health, especially for a high performance athlete can prove to be a fatal risk. Caroline Wozniacki was unaware of her condition while she played 2 matches and gave her best. However, if she had known she could have made better decisions in that regard.
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