Great Britain's Matty Lee has announced that he has undergone spinal surgery and will miss the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The 26-year-old teamed up with Tom Daley to win 10m synchro gold at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics before adding another two major medals to his CV during the 2022 season.
Lee and Noah Williams clinched the 10m synchro title at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and also finished as runners-up to China in the same event at that year's World Championships.
The duo subsequently placed fourth in the 2023 World Championships, but Lee was absent from this year's edition, as the returning Daley joined forces with Williams to win the silver medal.
Lee took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce that he had gone under the knife to relieve the "chronic pain", which will force him to relinquish his Olympic dreams this year.
"A week ago today I went under for a discectomy on my L5/S1 disc in my spine. The surgery went well but my surgeon told me my nerve was very stuck and it took longer than expected to remove my bulging disc without damaging my nerve," the 26-year-old wrote.
"He also told me it wouldn't have got better on its own so to have the surgery was the right decision. A week later I'm doing well, I'm not in much pain but that could be the painkillers doing their job.
"What this means for me this year is self-explanatory which is very sad, but the reason I look so damn happy in hospital is that I'm not longer in chronic pain, we've found a solution and I have something to work on.
"This season so far has been really tough, felt like I've been dragging myself through the dirt. In a weird way I've been put out my misery but it's also forced me to look after myself and that's what's important."
While Lee will not be going for Paris glory, Daley and Williams successfully qualified for the men's 10m synchro competition thanks to their performance at the 2024 World Championships, and they will be competing for gold against China, France, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Canada and Ukraine.
Outside of synchro events, Lee also won the bronze medal in the men's 10m individual platform at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, fnishing behind Canada's Rylan Wiens and Australian gold medallist Cassiel Rousseau.
Ben Knapton
