“I felt something pop in my knee, but didn’t think it was too serious.” -Ryan Callinan. Photo: IG
Ryan Callinan is sitting out the Meo Rip Curl Pro Portugal after suffering a fracture on the head of his fibula at Pipeline, the goofy footer announced Tuesday. The injury occurred in the Round of 32 at the Pipe Pro. Callinan still managed to post another 6.50 wave score after the wipeout but did end up losing the heat to Ian Gouveia.
The timing of the break also means Callinan surfed the Abu Dhabi Pro the very next week, but hadn’t realized the severity of the injury, he says.
“In my Round of 32 heat at Pipe on my second-to-last wave, I got compressed into my board, as I was trying to squeeze out the end of a barrel,” Callinan wrote. “I felt something pop in my knee, but didn’t think it was too serious. Flew home the following day for a quick turnaround to Abu Dhabi, nursing my warm-up waves, seeing how it faired. I pushed through not knowing until I got home the severity of what I had done. I ended up fracturing the head of my fibula, which is a bizarre place, but minimal other damage.”
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This is just the second time an injury has taken Callinan out of a Championship Tour event since becoming a full-time competitor in 2019. That injury came at the beginning of the 2022 season at Pipe, which put the Australian surfer behind the rankings eight ball early and left him short of that year’s midseason cut. Callinan moved on to the Challenger Series that year and made two finals and re-qualified for the CT as the second-ranked CS surfer that year.
