Photo: Ramzi Boukhiam // Instagram
Ramzi Boukhiam has withdrawn early from the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach due to a knee injury. The Moroccan was forced to call it quits after just the first round of the event, when he was laid low by a freak accident after finishing the final wave of his heat.
The injury occurred in the sixth heat of the first round. In it, Ramzi went up against Brazilian former champion Italo Ferreira and Australian Xavier Huxtable. The trio managed to complete the entire heat without incident – with Ferreira winning, Huxtable coming in second, and Boukhiam bringing up the rear. Then, as Ramzi was returning to shore, disaster struck.
“He was walking out of the surf and he stepped into the reef, so his leg got stuck there as the waves broke behind him,” described tour head Jessi Miley Dyer in an Instagram post immediately afterwards. “He’s been helped out of the water and we’ve got the medical team assessing him right now. There’s obviously the option as well for him to go offsite and get scanned, and I think that’s probably gonna happen. So we’re all crossing fingers for him and we’ll have to wait and see how that goes.”
Afterwards, Boukhiam followed up with his own Instagram post, providing his perspective on the injury. “Life doesn’t always make sense and right now, it’s really tough to accept what happened,” he wrote. “Getting a major injury — again — and during a contest I felt so ready for, just breaks me. With everything I’ve already been through, it honestly hits deep.
“But I truly believe everything happens for a reason. Maybe this is part of a bigger path I can’t see yet. I’m holding on to that thought, and doing my best to focus on healing, staying positive, and keeping my energy where it needs to be.
“I’ll come back stronger than ever — that’s the goal.”
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