Finally Back On The Pitch - 7th March 2013

Back To The Serious Business

After a long summer & pre-season, the competitive games were coming up thick and fast.  Although my playing time was less than I wanted, it was realistic and I was managed well to avoid injury.  I felt like I had achieved a lot in the past 21 months and was well aware of the work still to do before I felt anywhere near my old self, in both footballing & fitness terms.  In my head I gave myself the full season, from August/September 2012 up until April 2013, to get some kind of form & fitness back.  I would have preferred to set myself a much shorter target but general fitness and the fitness to play 90 minutes of football are totally different, for those of you unaware.

It may sound as simple as being able to run on a treadmill for 90 minutes or the equivalent of 90 minutes cardio workout but it puts much more pressure on your body playing football as opposed to just running for the same amount of time, as I found out first hand with my initial injury!  The work I had done in the gym was more than enough but there was only so much I could do without physically playing football and there was only so much "training" of my body that would benefit my performance overall.  The main aim was to lose the excess weight I had gained.

Before my injury I was always around 15 stone or 95 KG, I had been this weight for a while and due to my build it was healthy, as well as being 6 feet 1 tall and quite muscular (calculating via a BMI may show as overweight but a BMI is not totally accurate and doesn't take into consideration body fat percentage and muscle mass).

Before & After The Injury

Apart from the obvious difference in how much younger/older I look between the two photo's (3 years difference) and the shabby hairstyle on the left, my physical shape isn't too much different, which I am very pleased with after having to basically recover it.  I have progressed better and quicker than I expected in terms of my physical shape but I am still not where I would like to be and I always make sure I keep track of this in order to stay focused.

After avoiding any major injuries while playing quite a few matches, albeit only at the most 60 minutes on the pitch per game, I started to get more game time.  Currently, as of March 7th 2013, I've started and completed 5 full 90 minutes in a row and feel the world of good for it too.  Despite playing in a more unfamiliar right back position, I'm enjoying the challenge of playing at the back, as I used to up until I was around 14/15 and prefer the aggressive side of the game which the centre forward role rarely offers me.  In those 5 games I have contributed 3 assists and arguably should have scored at least 2 goals, much to my disappointment!

Missed Chance, One I Would Score 99 Times Out Of 100, Unfortunately This Was The 1!

Saturday will be the cup quarter final, one I'm desperate to win as the lads won a trophy last year, which was bitter sweet for me!  Obviously I was happy for the rest of the team winning silverware but missing out a trophy due to the injury for the first time in my life was frustrating and something I am keen to make up for.