Sam Laidlow has confirmed that he will seek immediate surgery to cure the injury issue that forced him to limp out of Saturday’s IRONMAN World Championship in Kona.

The French former champion had managed to battle his way up into second place coming out of T2, but his bid to chase down leader Magnus Ditlev (DEN) was short-lived, as he pulled out barely 5km into the run.

Seen walking through one of the early aid stations, Laidlow was shaking and rubbing his leg, clearly trying to improve his movement and/or blood flow.

‘I was just using my right leg’

And when he finally made the tough call to stop, he revealed to the IRONMAN film crew that he is struggling with the vascular condition iliac artery endofibrosis – a problem caused by repetitive hip flexion, which leads to arterial wall thickening and reduced blood flow.

“To be fair, I’ve just been battling trying to not give up for the whole ride,” he said. “As soon as I got on the bike, I had a lack of blood flow on my left leg, and it was really tough. That’s not great on this course, and I was just using my right leg a lot more.

“I’ve had races in the past where, if I could get through the bike, it was still okay on the run, and I think this time I just took it too far, pushing through that pain on the bike. As soon as I got on the run, my whole leg was numb.

“I was trying everything to get the blood flowing, tried to loosen my shoe, take my sock off and everything, and just couldn’t get the blood there. It’s something I have known about for a while, and I will fly back to France and get the operation done.”

‘I never felt myself on the bike’

He revealed that he had come close to pulling out earlier on the bike, but had decided to give himself the chance of seeing whether there would be any improvement out of the saddle.

“I never really felt myself on the bike,” he said. “The first ten minutes were OK, but then I realised the blood wasn’t getting to my leg, and I was probably 40-50 watts off where I wanted to be.

“I did what I could, but I was really close to pulling out up on Hāwī, but I knew that on the faster sections I could make up some time. I’m surprised that I came off in second, but that means nothing if you can’t run.”

Laidlow was the second former champion forced out of the race, with three-time winner Patrick Lange (GER) also pulling up, calling time on his Kona career at the top of Hāwī.

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Follow the race LIVE by clicking HERE.
Read the men’s race report HERE.
Read the women’s race report HERE.