By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER he got sidelined with a serious hip injury a few years ago, race walking champion Philip Moss got the medical treatment that he needed in China and now he’s hoping that he will eventually make a comeback to challenge for the Masters International competition.

Moss, who started to experience his medical problems from 2011, headed to China on February 26 and after spending two weeks in treatment, he returned home on Tuesday.

“I went to do the orthopaedic stem cell treatment for my joints and the intravenous shots,” said Moss after a successful treatment. “The process was easy. It was just an injection. They put like so much volume of fluid in your joints and that was it. They did it in each side of the hip, turn me over and inject the fluid in my legs.”

In 2012 when he competed for the last time in the Atlantic Medical Walk, Moss said he experienced such excruciating pain as he was coming down the Paradise Island bridge that all he could do was slowly head back to the finish line at Montagu Bay and dive into the water to cool off.

“I haven’t really done anything since then,” said Moss, who prior to that was the most dominant walker, winning just about every race that he competed in.

With the treatment complete, Moss said he was given a three- month period to fully recuperate before he can resume training and even start competing again.

“I don’t have anything to prove to anybody,” he said. “What I have accomplished today, nobody has done that locally or abroad. I put the ball so high that it’s going to be hard to reach. People are not committed as I was. I even went to a walking training camp, even though some people don’t see the reason why I did.”

Now as he takes the time to recuperate and get his joints regenerated, Moss said his goal is to go overseas and compete on the international stage in the future.

“It’s no use playing around here,” he said. “I might as well go abroad and try to accomplish something. As a masters, I look good and I feel good about my age. So I just want to give it a shot.”

Initially, Moss said he made inquiries about the facility in Grand Bahama, but was told that it would cost him about $30,000 plus VAT for one shot.

After doing his research on the stem cell treatment, Moss said he attempted to go to the facility in Florida, but because the facility wanted him to go back and forth to do the sessions in stages, he further investigated and found out about the facility in China that enabled him to get everything done in a two-week period.

“I always believed in China in their ancient medicine and I always wanted to go to China,” Moss said. “It was a break and I needed the rest and a vacation, so I enjoyed it. That was what I went there to do and I enjoyed it.”

Moss, a resident of Johnson Road where his bodywork shop is located, said he contacted Fred Mitchell, the Member of Parliament for Fox Hill and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who provided him with the assistance needed to get started on the journey to China.

Through Mitchell, Moss said contact was then made with the Ambassador of China, Hu Shan, whose office provided a round- trip ticket to China and he was on his way.

“I went there and I got my treatment, one intravenously and the orthopaedic,” he said. “I feel good and people say I look good, so I won’t say it’s working just yet, but I think the rest made me feel the way I feel. I didn’t go out in the streets. I went there to get this done.

“I thank the Ambassador for his help, but Mr Mitchell made it happen. I am a recipient of stem cell, so now I will just wait to see what happens after three months. But I believe I will be a new person and I should be ready to start competing again in the future.”