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TSN Senior Reporter

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It was likely the most famous ankle on social media last week, and possibly ever.

When Tony Finau rolled his foot celebrating a hole-in-one in the Par 3 contest at the Masters, golf fans cringed in horror as his leg popped out of the joint. They cringed again even more when he reached down and pushed it back into place.

“I saw where it was and I knew where it needed to be,” said Finau of his corrective measure, which he described as instinctive.

One person who looked on with a different perspective was Dr. Stuart Love, a Victoria chiropractor and medical practitioner who works with Finau and was just a few hundred yards away in his treatment centre.

“Seeing it was certainly the most bizarre thing I’ve seen,” he said. “My first instinct was to get him to me ASAP and figure out what took place, what type of injury we were dealing with and how can we put something together so that he’d be able to tee off the next morning.”

Dr. Love and his co-workers, who spend most of the year on Tour working with an assortment of players, tried to zoom in on the video to get a closer idea of just what had happened. The fact that Finau was able to put some weight on his leg told him it might not be as bad as it appeared.

When the golfer eventually made it back to the doctor’s table, the diagnosis was also fairly positive all things considered.

Although Finau had done the same thing to his right ankle a number of times, this was a first for the left one.

“The extent of swelling was nowhere near what I thought it would be,” said Dr. Love. “Typically a first injury like that, whether you just sprain it or mangle it up, it blows up like a balloon and the subsequent ones can be much less. But in his case, he had some swelling but much less than I would have thought.”

Dr. Love went through the normal assessment to determine exactly what and how extensive the injury was. That involved an X-ray that evening which ruled out any fracture and an MRI done first thing Thursday morning. That revealed some soft tissue damage and some ligament tears.

The expedited diagnosis was helped by several Augusta National members who are local orthopedic surgeons and sports radiologists. They cleared Finau to play, saying he wouldn’t injure himself any more by teeing it up. Then it was up to Dr. Love to get him ready.

“He had some discomfort but all he was taking was anti-inflammatories,” Dr. Love said, adding that there were no pain injections given. “Tony’s a pretty strong, determined, gritty guy and he’ll do whatever it takes.”

Dr. Love put Finau in a device called Game Ready, which uses cold and compression, as well as another one called Normatec which only uses compression to help with reducing the swelling. Prior to teeing off, he was taped up to give him some stability.

Finau then worked with his coach, Boyd Summerhays, and developed a make-shift swing that essentially had him hitting off his back foot.

In spite of all that, he posted a first-round 68, just two shots off the lead. He continued to play well, gradually returning to his normal swing as his ankle improved and the rounds progressed. Remarkably, he finished tied for 10th, posting a final-round 66 that included six consecutive birdies.

“Walking up hills, I bet my foot is yellow and purple,” said Finau after all 72 holes were completed. “This morning it was purple. And right now I bet it's yellow. “I'm going to need some rest. And I don't believe I've done any further damage, I just need to rest.”

Dr. Love said that watching Finau play on the injured ankle might have given him a new perspective on his cadre of golfers.

“After dealing with Tony’s injury, I’ve kind of changed my mindset. When a player comes into me, unless they have something badly dislocated, they’re going to be playing,” he joked.