Kelly Slater broke two metatarsal bones in his right foot Monday morning, while freesurfing up the point in Jeffreys Bay. He needed assistance making his way off site, and was taken to the hospital, where he was X-rayed (and posted the painful-looking results). The injury derails his promising start at the Corona Open J-Bay, where he had made it past Julian Wilson and Kanoa Igarashi in Round One, for a direct jump to Round Three.

With an ice pack on his foot and looking visibly dejected, he mused that the injury would not only take him out the J-Bay event, but also the Billabong Pro Tahiti next month. It's an unfortunate turn of events for the 11-time World Champ, who told the WSL last October that he was making a serious run for a twelfth Title this year.

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Currently sitting at No. 18 on the Jeep Leaderboard, Slater would have needed a few incredible results to get back on track, but as a four-time winner in J-Bay he was certainly hoping to make a stand here. The event here in J-Bay as well as Tahiti are two of his favorites.

"You ever folded your entire foot backwards? If you try it sometime, this is what it might look like. I pulled into a barrel this morning and the whitewash bounced the board back into my foot as I hit the closeout, taking all the pressure into the metatarsals. Kinda like smashing my foot with a big hammer as hard as I can. Sorta feels like I'm giving birth out of my foot right now! I'm guessing surgery and 6 week holiday is in order. Not looking forward to 30 hour flight home before surgery though. Ouch! It sucks but so many people deal with such horrible things around this world everyday that a broken foot is pretty minor in the scheme of things. Sometimes a bad thing is a good thing. I'll make the best of my time."