Stripping Off with Matt Haycox
Welcome to 'Stripping Off with Matt Haycox,' where we bare it all on business, money, and life. Get ready to peel back the layers of success with entrepreneur, investor, funding expert, and mentor with over 20 years of experience building and growing businesses, Matt Haycox.
Tune into steamy conversations with industry titans, celebrities, and successful entrepreneurs as they strip down their stories of triumphs, setbacks, and the raw realities of their journey to the top. Matt is going down on business, money, and life, and will take DMCs to new heights!
Stripping Off with Matt Haycox
Naked Truths #3: The Injury That Nearly Ended Everything – Mark Philippoussis' Ultimate Comeback
Tell us what you like or dislike about this episode!! Be honest, we don't bite!
In these ‘Naked Truths,’ I’ll be spotlighting my favourite, most impactful moments from past episodes of Stripping Off with Matt Haycox. These are the moments that hit hardest, offer the most value, and deserve to be heard again.
From a devastating knee injury to career-threatening surgeries and months in a wheelchair, this is the raw, unfiltered truth about what it takes to fight back. The mental battles, the isolation, the fake friends who disappeared, and the few real ones who stayed. But most importantly—the mindset that turned "You’ll never play again" into "Watch me."
If you’ve ever faced setbacks, doubted yourself, or needed a reminder of what resilience really looks like—this episode is for you.
Timestamps:
0:00 – The First Major Injury
2:26 – Setbacks & Pushing Through Pain
4:34 – Microfracture Surgery & Facing Retirement
5:59 – Rehab, Depression & Rediscovering Strength
8:46 – The Comeback
______________________________________________________________________________________
Who Is Matt Haycox? - Click for BADASS Trailer
Are you ready to unlock your full potential and take your business to the next level? I’m Matt Haycox—entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and your go-to guy for no-bollocks advice on business and personal growth.
With over 25 years of experience building and funding businesses across industries, I’ve faced it all—wins, losses, and the ultimate comeback story. Through my podcasts, No Bollocks with Matt Haycox and Stripping Off with Matt Haycox, I cut through the bullshit to bring you real, actionable strategies and raw conversations with entrepreneurs, celebrities, and industry leaders.
Whether you’re looking to scale your business, secure funding, or avoid the mistakes I’ve learned the hard way, my goal is simple: to help YOU create YOUR success story.
Want more? Subscribe to my No Bollocks Newsletter and get weekly insider tips on entrepreneurship, strategy, and business growth—because learning in 10 minutes is way better than wasting years on an MBA.
Ready to make moves? Let’s go—your success starts here.
You mentioned that that was a big year because of the comeback and that was your third knee surgery at that point, and how serious. I guess any surgery is serious, but how serious had the first two been prior to the third? You know, when you were told that you'd never play professional tennis again.
Speaker 2:Well, the first one was that 99 match. That was my first one where I was, like I said, quarterfinal S said quarter final sampras playing it was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, just playing great tennis won the first set, six, three, it was one. All had break point, um, and had hit a backhand like I've done two thousand times off the back foot, like I've done in my career, and felt something, but didn't really know what had happened until break point. He'd served the big serve and I went to return and lunge and I'm like, oh, that felt something a little weird and ended up holding serve and I called the trainer and the trainer came. I was like, look, I don't know, I've done something, I've, you know I felt something.
Speaker 2:But, um, you guys like, get lie down your back. And he was just stretching around trying to work out what was going on and he goes, okay, stand up again. And what had happened was when I went to stand up, I had torn my meniscus and when he was checking my leg, what was going on? That piece that I had torn off had folded into my joint. So every time I'd step on it would just be the most excruciating pain. So I literally I couldn't put any weight on my left leg. I ended up shaking hands within 30 seconds.
Speaker 2:I knew I couldn't even oh, literally from when the trainer yeah, and I just I couldn't, you know, because of that, meniscus had folded into my joint and I ended up being just helped off the court and I carried my bag and I just remember, in the locker room I was on the massage table and it was a small locker room back then and Pete was next to me getting stretched and I just remember I was just crying. I started crying, you know, and um, also crying because I didn't know what I have done, crying because just the, the, what's the situation and and the opportunity I had lost, you know being, you know being up a set with with Sampras, you know, and just playing great tennis and feeling good. So that was number one. But a meniscus tear is a very quick repair. I was back on the court, I had my surgery, I walked out, you know you stand up right after the surgery just to make sure everything's good and oh yeah, so I ended up.
Speaker 1:How quick did you get that surgery after that day? I was?
Speaker 2:on the court, probably two weeks later, slowly hitting you know it's literally that quick yeah, but not playing a tournament two weeks later.
Speaker 2:But but two weeks later slowly hitting and doing rehab, um. And then everything was fine until um at the end of 2000 where I had a great year and I could have. I was close to finishing the top 10 and I remember I had just lost in the final of paris indoors and to marat stuff in seven, six and the fifth and and I had one torn to go to swedish swedish indoors event and I thought if I did well, I had, I would make the top eight, you know event in the ATP champions. And then the night before the match I was with my coach then, peter McNamara, and we ended up going to a restaurant and I went to run across the road after that and I almost collapsed. Something and something happened and I woke up from a warm-up and I couldn't. I tried warming up my match and there was just this pain in my left knee and I had done it again. Same issue, same issue. So I come back and I was on the court eight days later.
Speaker 2:Ten days later I was on the court again and I played a tournament a month and a half later after the show had opened. It was a Memphis indoors, a big indoor tournament. I was seeded number two, sanford's number one, and I win that tournament. But I didn't realize I'd come back to Atlanta, I had done damage and then I ended up playing in Miami tournament. I had beaten Chang and then I woke up and my knee's like a balloon and then I ran a 16. I play Federer and then I'm like God, I don't know, I know something's wrong, but I've got to play. So I had put a sleeve over my knee so no one would see that it was like a balloon and I lost to him in three and had an MRI that night.
Speaker 2:And then the doctor was the Miami Heat orthopedic surgeon from the Miami Heat doctor, the hospital team, and he goes you've got to come in 6 am, you need surgery. You know you've got to come in 6 am, we've got to. You've you need surgery. You know, um, you mean you've done your meniscus again. So I'd woken up from the surgery. And then when I woke up he goes look, once we got in there, it wasn't as simple as that, I actually ended up having a microfracture surgery.
Speaker 2:So microfracture surgeries is when the bone above your you know leg has, um, you have cartilage around your bone but that had worn off, so it's bone on bone, um. So they had to drill a hole in the bone and then that hole, um it's you have to be non-weight bearing. That's why I was in a wheelchair for three months and crutches, and what has to happen is what's supposed to happen is that hole has to bleed and that blood ends up hardening up, which hopefully turns into like a cartilage, like protection around the joint. So I was one of the um. They had six surgeons in there because they haven't had done this surgery a lot. You know, only handful of surgeries have been done in the past like this um and and another doctor said like he'll never play professional tennis again, and then my doctor, what point did you hear those words?
Speaker 2:uh, when I woke up, okay, when I woke up, but the doctor, he was pretty good, pretty positive. He goes look, don't worry about what they say, I believe we've, you know, focus on our rehab, um, and let's just see how it goes. So I ended up doing rehab with the miami basketball team. With him for months, um, I was living in miami and I was getting synthetic cartilage injections in my knee, um as well. Um, and yeah, it was at the time where I was incredibly depressed because I was in a wheelchair, um, and I was that kid where you can't sit still.
Speaker 2:I would be on a jet ski, I'd ride motorbikes, I was a little bit of an adrenaline junkie, snowboarded. I just couldn't sit still and just the fact of being on my wheelchair would just, mentally, was getting to me. So one day I remember waking up and my dad would end up getting trying me to do things. He got a Tai Chi master to come in I'll do Tai Chi for my mind, like in the wheelchair, and stuff like that and I'd woken up and he'd sawn off the armrest of the wheelchair and he goes okay, we're going on the court and we're going to start hitting balls. So I remember I ended up training and was hitting balls. I could hit forehand, so I ended up just doing training while I was in the wheelchair.
Speaker 1:I mean, is that beneficial for you? Because I would imagine hitting a forehand from a wheelchair is materially different from hitting it A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:but my dad did that for my mind to keep me just not thinking about the wheelchair and just thinking about getting stronger and getting better. So everything he did, I was doing Tai Chi, I was doing meditation. You know someone, I was doing, you know rehab every day. I had someone come to my house every single day and then, when I got out of the wheelchair, I had a person come to my house and we did 30 minutes of yoga, 30 minutes of Pilates and he'd massage me for an hour every day. I did everything I possibly could to get myself back on the court.
Speaker 1:And how did you maintain motivation, or find motivation and focus? Because even though you've heard from the first doctor that you won't play professional tennis again, the next guy's saying look, don't worry, we're gonna focus on rehab. But I would imagine inside you think he's probably saying that to make me feel better, you know honestly, the best thing is hearing doctors tell me that I'll never play professional tennis again.
Speaker 2:I'm that guy that you tell me I can't do something. I will. That's how it was as a kid, you know. They said you, you as a kid, you're not going to make it and and and I'm that person. The best thing you can do for me is tell me that I can't do something, that if you want to help me, that's kind of how, um, that's what I wanted to hear, um, and that's something that drove me every day, you know, and the fact also, too, is having people around me very small circle. But also this has happened at the same time I had friends that disappeared. I had friends that I thought were super close, that were. I had this guy who was next door, literally my next door neighbor, that I thought was one of my closest friends. He did not come to my house once in those six months because he thought you might not be the famous market.
Speaker 2:Well, because my ranking dropped because I wasn't playing tennis, I wasn't traveling, you know, I wasn't getting him tickets to watch tournaments, matches. That happened as well and that was the best thing. Could have happened to me as well. I had people that I knew, my friends, who you know one of my closest friends now who would come to my house five, six days a week or ended up bringing friends and I'd play doubles on the court in my wheelchair, you know, and I realized who were, who became family to me, who really, you know, loved me and were my friends, and a lot of things that hurt me during those times, that were tough for me but ended up being a blessing, you know. And so that's another thing as well.
Speaker 1:How long did it take until you did go on court again professionally?
Speaker 2:Nine months later, I was on the court playing my first tournament.
Speaker 1:Nine and a half months later, how did you feel in that first match?
Speaker 2:It made it amazing. You know, first match made amazing. You know, the first match I won.
Speaker 1:Second match I lost in the second round, but just I just there was no, there was no fear that, oh, I'm gonna step on my leg.
Speaker 2:Funny, no no, that was for the longest time after that, but but no, no, when I was on the court, I'm I'm that person that, to be honest, I'm fearless, like I like I did a lot of stupid stuff with motorcycles and fast guys, where it's you know, I was lucky not to kill myself. To be honest with you, I just had no fear. I had that thing where you got to a point and you knew you had to slow down or something, and it was a wall where I just wanted to go faster. That's how I was with my life, to be honest with you, with everything I did, and I just didn't know. I knew when I'm on the court and I promised myself that I was not going to rush from rehab because I had done that before. So I knew that once I got on the court, I was strong. Trust me, trust my body. You're ready, you've done the right thing, just go. And that's where I was.
%20(1)%20-%20Copy.png)
