Help had arrived, and with it, something he had not allowed himself for a long time. Hope.

Exercise physiologist CP Lee has stepped in to oversee Mutalib’s therapy, offering his expertise as part of the effort to get him back on his feet.

He visited Mutalib at the care home in Sungai Buloh, accompanied by a team of exercise therapists. Also present was Noorul Ariffin, the man who had pulled Mutalib out of isolation and into care yesterday.

“Mutalib’s condition is not paralysis,” said Lee, who is chief executive officer of Asia College of Exercise Medicine and scientific advisor to Home Therapy Sdn Bhd.

“He has nerve impingement at L3.” The L3 refers to the third lumbar vertebra in the lower spine, a critical point where nerves branch out to control movement and strength in the legs.

When compressed over time, it can weaken muscles and limit mobility.

“Long unattended nerve impingement can lead to muscular atrophy,” Lee explained. “That can result in loss of function, sometimes permanently.”

For Mutalib, the delay had taken its toll. But not all was lost.

“I have assessed both his legs. His left leg is about 10 to 15 per cent functional,” Lee said. “He has a very good chance of walking again.”

It was the first time anyone had spoken of his condition in such terms. Not as an ending, but as a possibility.

Lee said treatment would begin with conditioning and muscle strengthening, using a method known as reciprocal innervation to activate dormant muscles.

For a man who once powered through velodromes, the work ahead will be slow and exacting. But it is movement nonetheless.

Only days earlier, Mutalib, 59, had lain in a small house in Kampung Bahagia Bukit Lagong, unable to move, dependent on sporadic visits from friends.

A stroke in 2021 had left him bedridden, and for six months he had not stepped outside. His world had narrowed to a single room.

It took Noorul’s intervention, and the help of young villagers, to change that. They cleaned his home, restored his dignity, and moved him into a nearby care facility where he now receives daily attention.

His plea then was simple: he wanted to walk again.

Noorul said: “Recovery rarely is easy but where there was once only stillness, there is now effort. Where there was isolation, there is guidance.”

Mutalib, who once understood the language of endurance, said: “This may yet be the most important race of my life.”