Quick Chat with Matthew Cosgrave (15th March, 2006)

The Northern Irish gymnast, Matthew Cosgrave has a heavily strapped ankle and was on crutches during the Opening Ceremony because of sustaining ankle ligament damage in podium training. Originally he was start listed to compete on pommels however he decided to compete on rings only, fearing that he would bang his ankle on the pommels. In the men’s qualification round, however the injury was too much for Matthew as he struggled and did not perform the dismount, marking the end of his Games competition.

Matthew told Backflip, ‘I ruptured a ligament on the outside of my ankle and have torn the deltoid ligament on the inside of my ankle. It’s actually still bleeding at the moment, it hasn’t stopped!’

When asked if this was a career threatening injury, Matthew replied, ‘It’s something I did last year in training - tearing the deltoid on the inside of the ankle. I thought there was a bit of a weakness but the way I landed, it kind of twisted and so I could have done a lot more damage than I did but because of rehab my ankle did recover so well from the last time. I decided rings was the safer option than pommels and I really just wanted to go out their today for the Games experience.’

While being interviewed for Backflip, a high spirited Beth Tweddle walked past Matthew with Imogen Cairns and shouted out, ‘Alright Matt, not on crutches today!’ Beth came out of the training hall on her crutches where she was supporting her fellow team mates!

The Northern Ireland women’s team will begin their Games campaign today - St Paddy’s Day!