Ian Thorpe AP FILE PHOTO
SYDNEY — Australian swimming great Ian Thorpe has left a Sydney hospital after battling serious infections for more than three weeks following shoulder surgery, his manager said Wednesday.
At one point there were reports that the 31-year-old five-time Olympic gold medallist would lose the use of his left arm, although they proved unfounded.
“It looks as though the infections have cleared up. It can always re-infect as it’s done twice before but we are hopeful,” his manager James Erskine told Australian Associated Press in confirming he was out of hospital.
Thorpe had broken his shoulder in a fall in Australia some months ago and Erskine said previously the swimmer known as “Thorpedo” would not be resuming his career in the pool.
He retired in 2006 after a glittering career in which he ruled the pool from 1998 to 2004, taking nine Olympic medals and 11 world titles and setting 13 long course world records.
He returned to racing in 2011 in Singapore but had a string of disappointing results leading up to his ultimately unsuccessful London Olympic bid the following year.
Since calling it quits for a second time in 2013, Thorpe has endured several health setbacks.
After using antidepressants and medication for a shoulder injury, the dazed swimmer was found by police early one morning in February near his parents’ Sydney house disoriented and attempting to enter a parked van.
His father revealed Thorpe suffered from depression and he received treatment in a rehabilitation facility.
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