Culburra Beach's Mikey Wright opens up about his ongoing battles with injury

After dominating the Qualifying Series in 2018, as well as making the most of his wildcard spots, the Culburra Beach Boardrider was invited onto the 2019 CT for the first time, alongside older brother Owen.

But after a ninth place and two 17th place finishes through the opening three rounds of this year's CT series, Wright decided to step away from the sport, to give his ongoing injuries time to recover properly.

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"The original injury occurred at Pipeline in February 2018 and I was competing at the Volcom Pipe Pro," Wright said in an interview with WSL.

"At the start of the heat, as I took off [on a wave], my nose just poked and I just went over before skimming - I then went up and over with the full force of the wave.

"It hit the whole right side of my body, including my head, my elbow and hip.

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"After going home, I didn't think much of it and it was in Brazil (later that year), that I noticed it started to deteriorate.

"It was here that I was starting to get a lot of pain again through my hip, which was the sciatic pain."

Fast forward to the Bali Protected and Wright suffered another setback, after hitting his head a number of times.

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"These caused me to have a few whiplashes, which made me unable to do heat interviews - I couldn't talk, I was actually losing all sense of emotion," he said.

"I didn't know what was going on."

Fortunately for Mikey, brother Owen had recently dealt with similar symptoms, after hitting his head at the Pipeline Masters in December 2015.

"Owen had already been through a very similar circumstance, a few years before and he explained it was from these concussions and you need to just breathe," he said.

"He talked me through it and from then on, I just managed it for the rest of the year.

"Especially as I kept getting all these CT wildcards spots, I decided I needed to push through it - I was having fun in the surf and I can deal with whatever's going on on land."

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Mikey managed to get his balance right until October 2018 before 'pulling the pin' on the season and taking five months out of the water.

After resting up, the 23-year-old returned to the surf in February.

"At Bells, I surfed a little, small wave and something happened and I got completely locked up - I couldn't breathe," he said.

"The pain just started coming back and it kind of just sent me for six again."

After being admitted into hospital during the Bells Beach Pro, Wright's taken measures to look after his long term future in the water.

"I'm trying to stay away from surgery at the moment - I was told I needed two disc replacements from a spine specialist," he said.

"I didn't really want to go there - he [the doctor] said if I wanted a long career, don't come and see me until you can't walk or you're pretty much laying in bed all day.

"That was enough motivation to do whatever I can to stay away from surgery.

"The work I'm doing is all neuro-therapy and everyday I get more and more improvements - hopefully I can be back in the water surfing before Christmas, but it's still all up in the air."

As much as Mikey would like to get back on the CT with brother Owen and potentially sister and two-time world champion Tyler, who has just returned to the water after battling with chronic fatigue for more than 12 months, he's not going to rush things.

"I'm going to come back with I'm 100 per cent and that might take longer but I'm definitely going to be happier for it," he said.

"I can at least have a long career instead of a short career with surgery.

"If things go the right way and I come back and get the wildcard or injury replacement next year, I'd be stoked to be coming back to show everyone what I'm capable of and competing at that top level.

"I'd even be happy going the QS route, I just want to get back to being 100 per cent and get back in the water and doing what I love."