United physiotherapist Neil Dalton spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria this evening, "Dolly" talking about the devastating injury to Joe Garner this week, as well as mentioning Paul Thirlwell's latest setback :
" In most occasions it is worse than a leg break, a leg break will tend to heal within around about three months. With a cruciate injury you need reconstructive surgery, and that unfortunately puts him out for anything between six to twelve months. Basically Joe has had a complete rupture of his anterior cruciate ligament. That's one of the cross so-called ligaments in the middle of the knee and the anterior one is at the front part of the cross in the middle of the joint. He has had a complete tear of it so there is actually no ligament there any more, it's in two parts.
" Unfortunately he is going to need to have that reconstructed, which we will be getting done in about a week's time. Joe being Joe he wanted to carry on at Crewe, as do most players when they get injured. In the case of Joe's injury itself it hasn't made it worse, he's had a complete rupture so once the ligament snapped in two it snapped in two, there is no other damage to the joint, his cartilage or any other ligaments. So in Joe's case it hasn't done it any more harm.
" Nine months is an approximate, the basic situation is that you have the surgery and you give them roughly around about six months of rehabilitation. They then join back in training and it can be anything from a month to three months really before they get back and playing competitively. So nine months is an approximation, it could be six and a half or it could be nine and a half months, that's just an approximate time, but around about or up to the nine months.
" The surgeon himself when we took him down yesterday, he actually said that you don't get many lads who do play on. Which probably just shows you the character that Joe is, he's desperate to play the game and he's a tough young fellow. So I don't really know to be honest, but once we got him up and walked off he said it was easing and to give him five minutes to let him see.
" He just trotted around and then he put his arm up with about a minute or two to go and we got a message to the gaffer (John Ward). We just asked him to hang on to half-time rather than make a substitution and Joe did that. As you saw a couple of minutes previously though he dived for a header and actually cleared the ball so you know what he is like. "
" A bone is a bone, basically it's hard toughened substance that when it breaks it heals and within a certain amount of time it's as tough, if not tougher than it has been. The basic of job of a ligament is to join two bones together, so of course you have got some movement where your ligaments are where the joint is. They protect the joint, they give it stability, they also allow it to move, that's the problem with a ligament.
" A bone basically is a strong tough structure whereas a ligament has to have a mobility, movement and that sort of thing. It also holds the two bones together so it's a much more precise instrument if you like as part of the body and that's why they take so much longer to heal or, with reconstruction, to build up the area around the joint.
" A week on Monday we are going down to Bingley to our surgeon. We had him down there yesterday, there is still a little bit of swelling in the joint. The surgeon has requested that we get the swelling out of the joint as that can cause problems in itself if you get in and operate too early. So we'll be down there at 5am for a 7am appointment with the surgeon a week on Monday. Then we'll have done it sometime that morning, which I'll be there in theatre watching the operation to see what is going on and make sure that everything goes OK.
" Thir (Paul Thirlwell) had his scan the same day as Joe, I feel a bit sorry for Paul because he seems to have been a little bit forgotten about with all that has happened to Joe. Unfortunately he has torn an ankle ligament, which is completely different to a knee obviously. Unfortunately though that is going to put him out for around about six to eight weeks as well, so unfortunately that could be Thir's season finished as well.
" He hasn't had any luck at all, he's had terrible luck with his injuries and it seems as though everything just seems to come one after the other. He has only actually had the occurrence of one calf injury so he has had two calf injuries on the same leg. The others have just been unfortunate for him. "