After the game against West Bromwich Albion I felt a re-occurrence of a groin problem that has previously kept me out of action.
Almost immediately I knew that it signalled a week in the treatment room which is just frustrating when you want to be up and running.
So on the Monday morning I trudged into the treatment room. The worst part of having the injury is that I can’t actually do anything other than receive treatment. Normally when you’re injured most players are given intensive gym schedules to follow however in my case I was told to steer clear of anything that could potentially aggravate my injury!
Tuesday was the same drill however I was allowed to get involved in some upper body strengthening work with the rest of the lads.
Thursday saw me enter the intriguing world of sports medicine further as I was packed off for a scan to determine the full extent of my injury.
I have to say that it is a bit of strange feeling going for a scan – generally you hear of the really top players heading off to get scans done on a wide range of injuries to help diagnose the extent of an injury, work out an estimated time of recovery and assist in planning a rehab programme so I felt like it was a really important thing beforehand.
Having now been through the process I can say it was actually a really relaxing experience – you lay down what can be described as a type of slab/movable bench and then you’re drawn into the scanner. It was that relaxing that I managed to doze off!
Thankfully when I awoke from my slumber and collected my results it became obvious that the major problem was that the injured area in my groin had filled with fluid. This was of sort some good news as it meant the injury wasn’t as bad as feared and enabled me to use Friday to go out on a jog and do a light session on the bike! It was great to be outside again!
On Saturday, I was in the gym early doors for a bike session that is aptly called four fours!
It involves biking as fast as you can for four minutes with a minutes rest – it won’t take a genius to work out that this is then repeated four times. It was hard work but it is all part of getting my fitness back.
With the session over, we all headed down to the Academy pitches to watch the lads play Derby. From the off we took the game to Derby and made a number of chances that we couldn’t quite convert. The best chance of the first half fell to Dan Taylor but he just couldn’t finish off after a good move – fair play to him though he still got in to the position in the first place.
The deadlock was broken in the second half, when Samuel Adjei curled a beauty with the outside of his boot into the top right corner. Samuel Ameobi then came close one on one with the keeper however he hit his shot straight at the keeper.
He made up for that effort though by converting after some greater link play involving Greg Mcdermott on the edge of the box. The third came when Adjei found Greg at the goal mouth.
At this point the game was over but Derby pulled one back from a brilliant solo effort from their captain he must have taken on at least four players before producing a calm.
Game over – another week another dollar – not a chance you can imagine my surprise when I was told to report for training on Sunday morning along with two other players for a 20km bike ride. The bike ride doubled as part punishment for not adhering to physio room rules and an opportunity to work on fitness levels following my week on the casualty list!
