Nicky Ryan has been one of ghe biggest names in the sport for several years now and despite still being very young, repeated injuries have left him considering retiring early. He’s been competing at the highest level of the sport since he was just 16 years old and although that will put a lot of mileage on anyone’s body, Ryan has already suffered more injuries than most competitors ever will. Disaster first struck several years ago in 2021 when he was still a teenager, as he hobbled off the mats after winning a match with Dante Leon and was clearly severely injured.
He eventually recovered from that and continued competing, but he suffered yet another knee injury during his preparation for the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational. He peered through and still competed at the event but was eliminated in the first round, before revealing the training camp injury. He then elected to have surgery this time after years of issues and is currently still recovering from that, focusing on rehabilitating his knee. This has obviously meant that he isn’t able to train and he recently revealed that he’s now taking on a different role at B-Team Jiu-Jitsu instead:
“While I can’t compete and we got CJI coming up, (I’m) trying to play more of a coach role in preparation for CJI. It’s kind of like the first time I’m really doing this because I don’t think people realize it’s very hard to be a head coach and a full-time athlete at the same time. So now it’s like, you know, I’m forced to sit out and watch the rounds and stuff, and trying to take on more of a head coach role now.”
Nicky Ryan has long been considered one of the best Jiu-Jitsu minds in the world and a coaching career has always been on the cards after retiring as a competitor, but he revealed that this time might come sooner than expected:
“One more surgery and that’s it for me, I’m done… If I retear this ACL, I’m just going full-time coach. I’m 23 going on three knee surgeries. I’m like if I get one more, like that’s it for me.”
He would obviously be a valuable addition to the rest of his team’s training if he does choose to coach full-time instead and although he does have things left to accomplish, it doesn’t seem like he would miss competing too much:
“I love winning. I hate competing. I hate the leadup to competition. I get so nervous every single time before I compete. I think that’s why a lot of my performances are like wish-washy, I have really good performances and then really bad performances. Me personally, I hate competing but I still do want to accomplish things in the sport, like winning an ADCC or winning a CJI. But I definitely am not a fan of competing.”
The full interview with Nicky Ryan where he reveals that he’s considering retiring if he suffers another knee injury was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the White Monster podcast:
