"He couldn't move, so he suddenly became a giant loaf of bread" - Holger Rune experienced large weight gain following achilles injury

Holger Rune has been absent from the court for a very long period of time. In one devastating moment, his tennis career and even life were thrown upside down following a horrific injury back in October of last year. He has since been trying to recover from this painful setback with his mother, Aneke, saying that he gained a lot of weight in this time away from the court.

Rune was thinking of silverware when he went a set to the good in the semi-final of the Stockholm Open against Ugo Humbert. One of tennis' brightest young talents, his 2025 season had not lived up to the expectation despite some deep runs at tournaments like Indian Wells and Barcelona. Following that title, early exits in major and Masters 1000 events became a theme before some deeper runs at 1000 level got him on track once more.

He was looking to back up the title won in Barcelona with another on European soil, but after the match went 2-2 in the second set, disaster struck. Rune tore the tendons in his achilles, instantly ruling him out of the match and beginning a nerve-wracking wait to see how bad the damage was. It was the worst possible scenario. He was predicted to be out for 9-12 months, but that did not stop him from getting back in tennis shape.

Regularly spending time in the gym at the beginning of his recovery, Rune documented a lot of it on his Instagram. Soon he was back on the court working his way up back to full fitness with a number of different drills slowly progressing more and more as he looked to get back into tennis shape.

On top of that, there was a long period where he was not able to do much due to the seismic scale of the injury. While cautioned to watch his weight, Rune's mother explained how he ate a lot and that he gained a lot of weight in this time frame.

"He actually started by gaining 10 kilos, because he still had to eat a lot. Everyone had warned us that he had to watch his weight, but he had to have enormous amounts of protein during his rehabilitation," she told BT.

"He couldn't move, so he suddenly became a giant loaf of bread because he gained a lot of muscle mass."

Soon, he was able to get back moving and the kilos burned off. Aneke Rune explained how her son's physique is back to where it should be. "He has lost weight and gained more muscle mass in his upper body," she updated.

Rune had been predicted to make a comeback to tennis around the US Open and North American hardcourt swing, possibly going into the Asian swing depending on how the recovery process was going.

On the contrary, the Dane had hoped to make his first steps back into tennis at the Hamburg Open, much sooner than many had expected. This caused for concern as many turned their heads to the prospect of Rune competing at so early after his injury.

This never came to fruition with the 23-year-old skipping the entire clay and grass swing. While there is no confirmed date of his return, the former Paris Masters champion has recently stated that his injury has improved drastically but more weeks of recovery are needed before he gets back to the perfect condition.