Gradus Kraus (24) was left with a broken hand after winning the fight last Saturday. The Osse boxer visited the hospital on Wednesday, where it turned out that there were a number of fractures. He rejected surgery, which will soon allow him to use his injured left hand again. “But it’s not wrong for him to take it easy,” says father Albert.
In addition to his father, Albert is also the trainer of boxing sensation Gradus Kraus. During the match against Englishman Theo Brooks, he noticed that his son had suffered a hand injury. “After Gradus knocked him down for the first time, he gave me a heads up. During the short rest he told me that his knuckle was bothering him. After that, I saw him use his right hand more often, four or five times in a row. But he just knocked him out with his left.”
Gradus Kraus’ injury is familiar to Albert. “I’ve had it before in my career, a hand is actually not made for such hard punches. In the heat of the battle you feel that it hurts, but the adrenaline keeps you going.”
“That took far too long for us.”
When Gradus took off his gloves after the match, it was clear where the pain came from. “The knuckle on his ring finger was actually completely gone. They put it back in place overnight. He could undergo surgery and then a pin would be placed for months, but then there was no guarantee that everything would turn out all right. That took far too long for us.”
Gradus will get a new cast next week, and a week and a half later he will be cast-free. “So he still has to take it easy with that hand and that’s okay,” says Albert. “He finds that difficult, because on Monday he was already hitting the punching bag with his other hand and on Tuesday he went running.”
Plaster-free would also be nice at home, because his wife Donna is heavily pregnant with a son.
