Tony Abbott was admitted to hospital briefly on Friday after an early morning surf was truncated by an errant surfboard causing an injury severe enough to require stitches.
The former prime minister at the heart of a simmering Liberal Party row over who was to blame for excessive obstructionism during the Gillard years, attended Manly Hospital to have a gash to his foot seen to.
It is understood the wound required "a couple of stitches" and was caused by the fin of a surfboard, which was thrown about in waves that had been better than expected.
Mr Abbott was reluctant to discuss the incident, describing his injury as the result of "a very very minor fin chop".
He later told Sydney radio's Ben Fordham that it occurred when two surfboards came together, but that he did not even know he was injured until an hour and a half later when he emerged from a great session to see loose skin and some blood.
"I am absolutely fine ... there's no better way to start the day than to get wet," he said.
The uber-fit Mr Abbott is known for his vigorous outdoor activities including surfing and cycling.
A big thank you to the ED staff at Manly Hospital for patching me up this morning after a minor fin chop.— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) August 19, 2016
Surf shop locals say the conditions along Sydney's northern beaches on Friday morning were relatively mild with warm air and sea temperatures and small, tending to medium, waves.
But they said occasional winds could make those conditions tricky at times.
Mr Abbott was back at work in his Warringah electorate office before lunch.
He has been in the headlines in recent days after admitting in a speech in Adelaide, that his 2011 decision to block the Gillard Labor government's proposed "Malaysian solution" to the people smuggling problem might have been the wrong decision because it entrenched a period of political hyper-partisanship.
He had said he was not sure it would have worked, but acknowledged that it might have been better to allow the government to try.
The reflection has partly undermined the current government's uncompromising critique of Labor's asylum seeker policies as unremittingly hopeless, and has also brought interesting reactions from some Liberals.
Mr Abbott's then immigration shadow minister Scott Morrison, has distanced himself from the hardline policy at the time by declaring he was merely carrying out his leader's instructions.
In a tit-for-tat exchange, Mr Abbott has rejected that version by letting it be known the Coalition's anti-Malaysian position had been a "line-ball call" and a "team effort".
The issue is seen as a proxy for deeper hostilities between Mr Morrison, now one of the Turnbull government's genuine leaders in his role as Treasurer, and the conservative grouping with which he has been associated in the past.
Right wingers say Mr Morrison abandoned Mr Abbott in exchange for the Treasurer's post under Mr Turnbull.
