By Elliott West
“A physio explained to me that snooker is one of the worst standing positions to take for your body. Bending is fine but then asking your neck to extend to see down the line of the shot. It’s that movement, then everyone’s got a little twist as well which makes it worse”.
Shaun Murphy
Introduction
Shaun Murphy has been experiencing a dip in form in recent months, losing a number of early-round matches as a result of a neck and shoulder injury. His latest exit came in in this year’s Masters where he was convincingly defeated by a rejuvenated Barry Hawkins 6-2. Prior to the tournament, this injury had been highlighted in the media and further investigation has found that Shaun had this problem since 2013 with the player having various degrees of flare-ups since.
One of the downsides of being a snooker player is that you can be prone to such injuries. Players such as Martin Clark, Peter Ebdon and Ian McCulloch had to cut their careers short due to extreme pain and it is a result of positioning your neck, shoulders and back at angles not normally taken. These are called static strains and can occur in mild or extreme forms and can in extreme cases produce medical conditions such as Ankylosing Spondylitis, a condition that the former professional Scottish snooker player, Chris Small suffered from and ended a promising snooker career as a result.
Murphy’s Law
Shaun Murphy’s take on this medical situation is to take one day at a time. He is trying to not let the situation worry him and has put to the back of his mind, the prospect of having to retire early. It had meant that he has had to reduce his number of practice hours and tailor his career around it. His days of carrying out five seven-hour practice sessions a week may be over but at the risk of being pain-free, this is a price worth paying.
However the standard on today’s tour man’s that it doesn’t take any prisoners and since his progression to last year’s World Championship final, he has only made one quarter-final appearance. Despite this, Shaun is philosophical about the situation and believes despite his poor form, he has actually been playing quite well. It has just been the combination of pain and tough opponents that have thwarted his progress.
Kindred Spirits
Shaun has several key components in his armoury, the superb coaching techniques of Chris Henry who helps him with the physiological and technical aspects of the game and John Wilson, a spectator, who has been coming to watch Murphy play since the snooker player was 8 years old. A man who is a close family friend and a true rock when Shaun needs him. With friends like these, Murphy’s future is definitely bright and far from over.
