I’d had a few injuries before the one I sustained during that county rugby match, but nothing too serious. I’d had concussion a couple of times, once from tackling a guy with my head during one of our school matches in the worst conditions I’d played in. It was cold and sleeting, and by the time the guy ran in to my head with his knees I was already ready to get off the pitch. I probably over exaggerated the collision by wobbling a little bit too dramatically, and ended up walking back to the changing rooms for the best hot shower I think I’ve ever had.
The second time happened when my fly half, Neil, kicked the ball straight in to my face after I’d passed it to him. That one hurt. Displaying true sympathy, my coach told me to stop whingeing and get back on my feet as we hadn’t got any replacements. The rest of the match was a blur.
Other than that I’d only had minor problems from a recurring nose bleed and had had trouble with my right knee after over extending it whilst stuck in a maul. However, the knee injury this time was clearly more serious. By the time I got dropped home by a teammate after visiting A+E, it had become very swollen. The A+E staff couldn’t really give me any clear idea of what the injury might be so just suggested I iced it and waited for the swelling to go down.
Once my knee got back to normal size and I was able to walk I went to the GP and promptly got referred to a knee specialist. I was then booked in for an arthroscopy to uncover the problem, as the surgeon suspected cartilage damage. Following the relatively minor operation he confirmed that I had damaged my cartilage so he tidied it up and cleared away the fluid which was filled with blood and debris. Unfortunately, it soon became obvious that the operation hadn’t cleared up the problem as my knee would often collapse, particularly when trying to do any kind of running or twisting.
A friend of mine recommended a sports physiotherapist in Stafford, who he had seen for a knee problem he had been struggling with. Feeling as though I had nothing to lose I booked an appointment and went along to see one of the senior partners. He got me to lie down on the physio table, and within minutes of manipulating my knee he stated that I had clearly snapped my anterior cruciate ligament and needed surgery to fix it. Given that the surgeon who performed the arthroscopy had not even noticed it, I was more than a bit surprised.
He instantly referred me to a sports knee specialist to have a Jones-Hersen ligament repair. He explained that this was a pioneering technique which involved taking a strip of my knee tendon with bone at each end to use as a new ligament. He also said that there was no chance of playing rugby again, as my joints would be too weak. Apparently some people can continue playing without cartilage or ligaments, but I clearly didn’t fit in to that group of people. He said I had very supple and slack joints, more associated with a gymnast (probably from swimming breastroke for years) than a rugby player which meant I was more susceptible to this type of injury. Either way it was the end of my rugby playing career and I was going under the knife.
To cut a long story short, the ligament repair didn’t quite go as well as planned. After I’d made a full recovery and finished my rehab physio, my knee still kept collapsing. Frustrated I went back to the physio and ended up having an MRI scan, another arthroscopy and another ligament repair. All in all it took three years to fix and enable me to do exercise without my knee collapsing on me. Even though it was fixed, I never did anything that involved severe twisting and never played any other physical sports. I wasn’t going to go through all of that again.
I saw my sporting life from this point on as two distinct eras. Pre and Post Knee Injury.