How Brandon McBride avoided early retirement to run for 5th Canadian title

Brandon McBride, who could barely walk last December, wondered if the excruciating pain in his right knee would end his professional running career at age 27.

The pain didn't subside after treatment from several therapists, who told McBride he couldn't run for two months. A long layoff would cost him valuable preparation time for the 2022 season and impact his ability to qualify for the world championships in July.

So, McBride reached out to Dr. Brian Murer in Indiana, who helped keep the middle-distance runner healthy in 2018 and 2019. The doctor was under contract with a National Football League team last winter but introduced McBride to Dr. Yoav Nagar, a fellow chiropractic specialist in North Hollywood, Calif., who fixed the Canadian athlete within two hours.

"He worked on my diaphragm and showed me some upper-body stuff," McBride said. "I didn't see how breathing exercises would help my knee, but he told me to trust him and go for a run the next day.

"I ran for 45 minutes to an hour and my knee soreness was a 1.5 or 2 [out of 10]. it was 9.5 [before treatment from Dr. Nagar]. I ran three times the following week, five times the week after and then full on.

"You have to have a therapist you can trust who knows athletes and what they're doing," continued McBride, who turned 28 last week. "It could mean the difference between retiring and going on to win a gold medal. If it wasn't for Dr. Nagar and Dr. Murer, I would have retired, probably in January. I was in that much pain."

On Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET, the Windsor, Ont., native will line up for the men's 800-metre semifinals in his return to the Canadian track and field championships in Langley, B.C., after a two-year absence due to COVID-19 and injury. The final is