Last year Portugal's only WCT surfer, Tiago Pires, missed almost the whole season due to a knee injury. At the end of the year he applied for one of two injury wildcards and received it. "Reading that email," Pires said in a recent interview with the ASP, "was almost like finding out I had qualified for the first time. Just a very positive and joyful news."

Pires hurt his knee in April last year. "It was after I got back from the Aussie leg and the waves were pumping for a week non-stop. I had many amazing sessions in Supertubes, Carcavelos, Ericeira and then Santa Cruz where I got hurt. This one morning it was only myself and two other friends and the waves were absolutely perfect. I had had my fair share of crazy barrels and had surfed for about two hours."

"The wave where I got hurt was one of those waves where I should’ve been watching from the beach already! I was over-confident after so many barrels and decided to go on a super late but amazing looking one. As I was air dropping into the barrel my inside rail didn’t catch and the board turned left facing straight to beach. The lip landed right on my knee and pulled my front leg backwards really bad. I instantly felt a horrible pain and that was it. I was done."

"I started doing physiotherapy right way and it was a twice-a-day kind of deal for about three months before I started surfing. Then, in September I had another episode where I landed on my knee again and it got worse again."

"After surfing for two months with the same pain I decided to change doctors and went to Barcelona to get another person to look at it. After I got back from Spain and with an infiltration of Plasma in my knee I was forbidden to surf until mid-December. At the moment I’m feeling way better, doing a very intense muscle rehabilitation and I’m confident that I will be 100 percent pretty soon."

The above interview took place in early January, the video below filmed in late January. There's not an air or above-the-lip move to be seen but Pires' rehab appears to be coming along just fine.