Russ Clash, The Shots’ Head of Medical and Sports Science, gives us an update on injuries in the Aldershot Town squad.
Damon Lathrope: Damon had a Grade 1 strain of his adductor muscle, which is slightly different to the injury that he had previously but is in the same area. He’ll do some work today (Thursday 3 September) with a view to him hopefully rejoining training tomorrow and then, all being well, being available for this weekend. If not Saturday then the signs are that he’ll be back next week.
Jack Saville: He woke up and cricked his neck, it’s just unfortunate. He’s had some treatment and been given some anti-inflammatories and it’s calmed down. Hopefully he’ll be back in training on Friday and available for the weekend. We’re not expecting it to be long-term, but these freak injuries happen and it can be quite painful.
Sam Hatton: Sam got a knock on the first day of the season and we’ve tried to nurture him through that but it hasn’t really worked too well, so we’ve taken him out of training. He’s been seen by a couple of people and had another x-ray, to give him more time for it to settle down, but as soon as he starts exercising it exacerbates the problem. We’ve had to be quite cautious – he’ll do a little bit of light activity today (Thursday) but he will need a good week of training under his belt before he returns, which hopefully he will get next week.
Joe Oastler: Joe is back at St George’s Park for the third time, he’s doing a ten-day stint to work with four or five specialists who can all look at him at the same time. It’s a very delicate injury and they’ve got equipment that we just haven’t got to hand. He’s been on a non-weight-bearing treadmill, where he works at a percentage of his bodyweight, and he was at 80% last week. He was running for the first time yesterday (Wednesday), on an artificial surface, doing some change-of-direction work. He’ll be back with myself on Monday and most of our work will be outside rather than indoors. He’s still very much on schedule to be back playing during October. Joe’s very keen and eager, and does exactly what you want him to do – he’s the model patient and he’s worked extremely hard. If he’s back any earlier than expected, then it will be credit to him.
Sean McGinty: Sean is also going to St George’s Park in a few weeks. He’s still got another week in the walking boot, to slightly offload the weight through the metatarsal, and that comes off next Friday. He’ll then have another x-ray. The operation that he had soon after the injury has reduced the time for the bone to come together, and hopefully after the boot comes off we can get him doing some outdoor activity.
