Exclusive: Joe Fraser overcomes injury nightmare with eyes firmly on Paris

They do sum up his mood at the end of it.

“I think I got my mojo back,” posted Fraser on social media after winning all-around gold at last month’s British Gymnastics Championships.

His first major win since becoming the first British male to be crowned European all-around champion in 2022, it was a success which arguably meant more considering the challenges he has overcome just to get back competing.

Replace the word “mojo” with “Olympic dreams” or even “career” and you wouldn’t be far from the truth.

“I have definitely had moments over the past year when I wondered whether it was all over,” says Fraser. “It wasn’t that I couldn’t mentally do gymnastics anymore. I just wasn’t sure my body was up to it.

“The ‘mojo’ line is from a Jay-Z song. It felt fitting, considering the position I was in.

“There are so many things I have had to overcome behind the scenes. Actually managing to do that and come out the other side is so satisfying.”

At the start, it all seemed so straightforward. When Fraser underwent surgery to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder in February last year, he expected to be back within six months. He even, in his words, decided to “kill two birds with one stone” by undergoing a further operation to properly repair the foot he fractured, just two weeks before winning three gold medals at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Yet as the days, weeks and months ticked by, it became clear Fraser’s recovery was not going to be so easy as expected. Even at the turn of the year, his chances of being back in time to compete in Paris this summer appeared seriously in doubt.

“I’d had surgery on my other arm previously and I guess I was naive to think things would go so smoothly again,” explains Fraser.

“It’s been a really tough 12 months trying to get back fit. Every time I was going into the gym and I was not quite there, struggling to crawl, it was coming back to me that I was losing days.

“Going into this year, a lot of people probably thought I was not going to get back in time for Paris.