John Newcombe is recovering after undergoing skin cancer surgery in Syndey. Newcombe had been in hospital for hip surgery when doctors noticed a white spot on his nose that tests showed was cancerous, though it was later revealed to be non-malignant.
"It took 64 stitches to cover the wound. What was supposed to be a 45-minute operation turned into a three-and-a-half hour marathon," Newcombe told the Weekend Australian.
The former No. 1 and multiple Grand Slam champ said it was a reoccurance of a decade-old problem. "Surgeons back then cut out a cancerous growth from my nose, but the mistake [I made and] a lot of people make is I never went back to have it properly checked out," he said."I thought at the time they had got it all, but it came back to bite me again."
Skin grafts and facial reconstruction surgery was required to fix the scars left by the surgery, reported the newspaper, but "the legendary moustache survived."