With fresh stitches to the knee, Italo Ferreira’s status for the El Salvador Pro is uncertain. Photo: Oscar Hetherington//WSL
Just two days before the El Salvador Pro kicks off, rankings leader Italo Ferreira suffered an injury during a freesurf that resulted in eight stitches on his knee. The former world champ and Olympic gold medalist says he still hopes to be ready for the event that kicks off on Friday, June 5.
Ferreira posted the following statement in Portuguese on his Instagram stories on Wednesday, June 3:
“Today, during a surf session here in El Salvador, I was involved in an accident in the water and sustained a deep cut to my knee area, which required eight stitches.”
“I have already received treatment; I am on medication, pain-free, and being monitored by the medical team. Thank God, everything is under control.”
“Many people asked me what happened: another surfer ran right over me, and there was no way to avoid it. The cut was deep — and the photo does look pretty scary — but everything is fine now, and the focus is on recovery.”
“I want to thank everyone for the messages, the concern, and the outpouring of support. I hope to be fully recovered and ready to push on strong through this stage.”
According to the Spanish language surf outlet Duke — which has a reporter, Pablo Zanocchi, on the ground in El Salvador — the incident didn’t occur at the event site Punta Roca, but at the point break of El Sunzal, four miles to the west. Allegedly, Ferreira was giving lessons to his partner when a longboarder ran him over.
Ferreira is seeded into heat nine of round two, facing off against the winner of Ramzi Boukhiam and Matt McGillivray. Local wildcard Bryan Perez believes the event will kick off on the first day of the window on Friday, giving Ferreira little time to recover.
If Ferreira is unable to compete, he’d join Jordy Smith as surfers who had to pull out of the event due to injury.
