The end to a 10-week journey

It has been a couple of weeks since my last blog. At that point I had finished my conditioning week and was heading into my final week of rehabilitation with more football specific drills to make sure my foot could deal with the different exertions that football movement patterns expose it to. So, in my 10^th and final week I did football sessions with Phil Hayward on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with no problems at all, I also joined in with the 1^st team for different passing drills. By the time Friday came I was desperate to join in full training!

It was always the plan to have a CT scan at around 10 weeks to make sure the bone was healing well and to make sure the screw in my 5^th metatarsal was still in a good position. I was 99.9% sure everything would be okay as I have had a really good rehabilitation since the fracture with no pain or setbacks occurring at any time, but it was still a massive relief for the radiographer and surgeon to both report on the scan positively giving me the all clear to join in full training. Even more pleasing was having the surgeon tell me that the scan actually looked like I was 14-16 weeks post operation rather than the actual 10 weeks. This just confirmed to me that all the sacrifices I made and dedication I showed was really worth it. 

I have been adamant right the way through this process that the nutrition has played a huge role, it has allowed me to heal quicker and stronger with no need to take any sort of medication at all. I believe my food choices have helped decrease inflammation meaning I have had relatively little pain. Along with that, all the constant anti inflammatory processes I carried out, elevating my leg at every opportunity, massage and all the icing and compression through using the Game Ready machine has had a massive effect. I calculated that in the 10 weeks post surgery I have used the Game Ready about 250 times which equates to around 84 hours or 3 and a half days (no wonder I have had no pain in my foot, it has been numb!) On top of that, good sleeping patterns, all my specific work in the gym with the physio’s, and all my conditioning work with sports scientists has contributed to me being able to be back in training inside 10 weeks in the best possible shape. I think it is also important to mention that apart from the first 24 hours after the surgery I have not taken one tablet or painkiller.

I absolutely loved joining in training last Friday for the first time, it was great to be back in my usual morning routine preparing for our morning football session and great to be back amongst my team-mates. I then trained on Sunday and Monday, each time increasing the intensity in which I trained. I have had no pain at all in my foot since being back in training and no hesitancy either, whether it be going into tackles, closing people down, striking the ball or sprinting full out.

I was over the moon to be included in the travelling squad to MK Dons on Tuesday. I love a match day routine and the chance to be in the dressing room helping the boys to prepare for a game was something I had been longing for over the last couple on months.

Things got even better when I was named on the substitutes bench, to have a chance of being back out on the pitch was an exciting thought, and as the game ebbed and flowed like a usual Championship encounter, I got the call to get ready with about 5 minutes to go. We were leading 2-1, which in usual circumstances is quite a difficult scenario to come on in because not really a lot can go right, you are being put on the pitch to see the game out and you are desperate not to make a mistake!

However, I was raring to come on, I was dreaming of a breakaway goal. James Henry had been putting in some magnificent crosses all game and I desperate to have the chance of getting on the end of one.

I was ready from about 85 minutes to come on but didn’t actually get the go ahead from the gaffer until injury time with about 3 additional minutes remaining. I managed to get one touch, a header that I flicked onto Adam Le Fondre so at least my pass completion read 100%. Joking aside, it was an incredible feeling to back on the pitch just 73 days since I fractured my metatarsal at Loftus Road. It has given me a platform to hopefully progress and get more minutes under my belt and push to be back in the starting 11 before the end of the season. Tuesday was also my 250^th appearance for Wolves, I am so proud to have played so many matches for such a great club!

One sour moment of Tuesday night was the horrific knee injury that Michael Zyro suffered. Michael is a great guy who I really have a lot of time for, he is a hard worker, a terrific footballer and has a great personality. Everyone knows it is going to be a tough, long road for him to get back to full fitness, he will have ups and downs physically and emotionally but he has a really positive attitude that will undoubtedly see him come back fitter and stronger. He has good people looking after him and team-mates that will always be there to help whenever they can.

I want to say a personal thanks to everyone who has helped me through these last 10 weeks. The hard work of our medical team at Wolves has been incredible, they have gone above and beyond to make sure I returned in the best possible condition. There is an endless list of thank you’s that I need to give out for the amount of help and good will I have received but it would turn the blog into more of a novel!

My final thank you is to everyone who has read this blog. Through the blog and social media I have received so much support and encouragement, it has really spurred me on and played a huge part in my recovery. If you guys can all send the same support to Michael Zyro, Jordan Graham, Ethan Ebanks-Landell and Nouha Dicko as they recover from bad injuries it will help them in the same way you have all helped me!

Thanks again and I hope I have given you an insight into the football world and what is like for an injured player.

Thanks for reading!

Eddo

Conditioning week & the media world!

It’s been another tough, physical week at the training ground but I am feeling great and the progress has been really good. I have been out on the football pitches Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week, and although I was on football pitches there weren’t too many footballs to be seen!

As I close in on being able to join in with full training again, I have had the dreaded “conditioning week.”  When I say dreaded, it is meant a bit tongue in cheek because it is still much better than sitting in the treatment room or in the gym, however I knew every single day I was outside this week that my legs and lungs would be in a lot of discomfort! There has been a real mix in all of the sessions to make sure I have been working hard in every aspect. From short & sharp multi directional sprints with little rest, to longer repeated runs of over 100-metres. At the end of every session I have felt physically exhausted and there is absolutely no hiding place as a GPS system & heart rate monitors track every movement from a small piece of equipment that I wear. These systems have become very important to football clubs as it allows staff to accurately see everything that each player is doing during training and games and from all the data that is collected, training sessions can be modified to get the optimum amount of work and recovery. It is a really important tool for me having suffered a foot injury as it means my loads can be monitored live throughout sessions so when I hit my targets that the medical department and strength and conditioning department have set for me then I can finish the session without the risk of being overloaded.

It has been important to get the fitness work in this week but also just as important has been the preparation and recovery I do before and after each session to make sure I am in the best possible condition. Before each outdoor session I have a routine of an assessment by Phil Hayward and some mobilisations all around my foot and ankle to make sure everything is moving in the correct way. I then have my soft tissue work with Matt Wignall our masseur. Matt will release all the tissues that connect with the initial injury site and any other areas that may be overloaded. I then have a routine in the gym, which takes me around 20 minutes to complete. I have been doing this same routine over the last 3 years which involves different dynamic movements and stretches to make sure my body is completely ready to go into the warm up when I get outside. Since I started this routine and along with my post training routine I have been mainly able to stay clear of any muscular injuries. 

After my outdoor sessions this week I have been coming in and starting the anti inflammatory process of icing and elevating my foot, to make sure I limit any inflammatory response to the increased load. My afternoons have then been more specific work for my foot such as proprioception sessions with the physio’s and then my upper body conditioning sessions as well.

All in all the week has been a big success and it now allows me really concentrate on more specific football work next week, to give a real indication of how close I am to return to full training.

I have also been very busy away from the training ground this week. Once I suffered the injury I was adamant I would try and turn it into a positive in some way and along with writing this blog I wanted to gain some experience in the media world. I was fortunate enough to do some summarizing work with Mikey Burrows and Matt Murray for our game against Blues a few weeks ago, and on Thursday I was invited down to Cardiff by BBC Wales to join presenter Jason Mohammad and ex-Wales assistant manager Kit Symons to cover Wales’ game against Northern Ireland. I was really excited to have the opportunity to do some TV work although I was a little bit nervous knowing it was live. 

Jason and Kit were great and along with all the other technical staff they made it really easy and comfortable for me. We were on air for the build up to the game, then again giving our views at half time and finishing up going through the game at full time. It absolutely flew by and I really enjoyed it although I would of much preferred to be down on the pitch representing my country! The game was pretty drab in all fairness but Wales did ever so well to fight back and get the draw against a really tough and resolute Irish side.

Jason Mohammad, myself and Kiy Symons before the Wales game

After training on Friday I travelled down to Leicester to join Geoff Peters as a studio guest on TalkSport’s new station TalkSport 2 for ‘Up The League’, it’s a show that covers all things going on in the football league. The other studio guest was Steve Hodge, someone I know well from his time coaching at Wolves a few years ago. Steve had an amazing playing career and listening to his vast knowledge on the goings on in the football league was really impressive, and a real natural behind the microphone. Again, the time flew by and I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was so relaxed and just like having a chat with your mates down the pub about football….PERFECT!

On Saturday I headed down to Sky Studios to be a guest on the Saturday Sport Show on Sky News discussing the international break. This was really a great experience, from the moment I got there the whole place was so impressive. Being a genuine sports fan I was delighted to find out that the show would be aired in the Sky Sports studios and even more excited when the producer took me on a tour and I got to see the Sky Sports News set, it was huge and so much going on. 

I’m sure all football fans would love to see where things like Deadline Day and Soccer Saturday take place I was so fortunate to get that experience! After the little tour I then met Arron Armstrong who is a presenter at Sky, we chatted about the show and headed down to makeup. 

I was mortified when I was sat in the chair and the very polite makeup artist starting applying foundation and anti shine, but after the initial shock and seeing what the miracle of makeup does I started to enjoy myself, I looked about 5 years younger before the dark eyes and sleepless nights that my children have given me! She even said I could take some wipes to wipe the it off with after I have finished but I said “No way, I’m keeping it on, I have to show my wife my new eyes!” 

I was pretty nervous going live on air, you have the bright lights shining on you and it wasn’t scripted at all so I didn’t really know exactly what I’d be talking about. Arron was great with me and made feel so much more relaxed and it was amazing to see how good he was as soon as the cameras started rolling. I didn’t realize just how talented Arron, Jason Mohammad and Geoff Peters all have to be, the amount of work that goes into these shows is immense, its not just about their voice and presenting, they are constantly managing timings, content and messages from colleagues, it really is impressive stuff!

Arron Armstrong and myself before the show

I have thoroughly enjoyed the media experiences this week and I’d like to thank BBC Wales, TalkSport 2 and Sky for all being so welcoming and giving me the opportunity to go their shows.

Thank you all for reading again and hopefully by next week’s blog I’ll be on the verge of full training!

Eddo

From the sandpit to the grass pitches!

It has been 2-weeks since my last blog and the time is flying by. The reason for my blog absence last week was due to the medical department giving me a pre-planned 5-days away from the training ground. Giving me the chance to rest up a bit both physically and mentally so I didn’t have a great deal of information to write about. It was always the plan to have a break at 6-weeks, and with my progress being on track it was nice to switch off for a few days and it left me feeling recharged and raring to get back into things this week!

I was back in the training ground on Saturday and my main aim was to get myself running at 90% of my body weight on the Alter G Anti Gravity treadmill, which I successfully did. This was the last bit of rehab I needed to tick off before the holy grail of being allowed back outside running on the grass. I also started doing some plyometric work in the sandpit at the training ground, this felt really good as I was really starting to load my foot in more multi directional jumps and hops, although finishing the session with 3 sets of 30 seconds high knee running wasn’t so fun!

Costa Del Wolverhampton

First time I put my boots on!

Monday morning couldn’t come fast enough, being able to put your boots back on to go for a run on the grass is one of the huge milestones of a lengthy injury. I had done my early morning swim at Nuffield Health in Wolverhampton, I then went through my normal routine before heading outside about 11am. The plan was to do 4-sets of 4-minute runs at a jogging pace with very early stage agility and ball work in between these sets. 

Just to be running outside in a pair of boots felt incredible although I did feel very apprehensive as I started but thankfully the session went to plan and most importantly I had no pain at all. From Monday the week built up really nicely, I was outside again on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with a lighter day on Wednesday. Each outdoor session progressed every day and by the end of the week I was doing some slalom runs over 80 metres loading more through the outside of the foot (5^th metatarsal region) and this was at a good 80% of my maximum pace. Also the agility work was getting a bit more intense, I was picking up the speed through different ladder and hurdle drills and with that the ball work was increasing. 

Mentally this has all been great, it really picks up your mood seeing that the end is almost in sight. It has also been nice to do a lot of my work with Nouha Dicko this week. We are at a similar level in what we can do now although Nouha will obviously be a bit further away from full fitness due to the severity of his injury but it is nice to be working alongside him, as it seems a long time since we were playing together at Molineux!

Me and Nouha Dicko doing our runs

Apart from the obvious highs of the outdoor rehab, I have still been having all my treatments off the medical staff, doing specific rehab in the gym mainly balance and proprioception work, upper and lower body conditioning session 3 times a week, high intensity interval training twice this week, sand pit plyometric sessions 3 times this week and also 3 early morning swimming sessions. I absolutely love the swimming and have been doing it 4 weeks now, my first session was doing sets of 6 lengths (20 metre pool I think) and I was absolutely knackered after that but on Friday I did 50 lengths straight off which is 1000 metres and I did it in less than 20 minutes. I think I could end up being a triathlete after this last 8 weeks!

This week also saw me make my debut in the Molineux press box. I was lucky enough to be asked by Mikey Burrows to join him and Matt Murray to commentate on Wolves’ game against Birmingham on Sunday. It was a typically tight derby game with no one wanted to give too much away but it was very enjoyable to watch. It was very different to be sat up in the top tier of the Billy Wright Stand watching the game, it definitely looks a lot easier to play from up there and it seems like there is more space than when you are actually down on the pitch in the thick of the action but it does allow you to accurately see what is happening tactically and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience on giving my thoughts and opinions on the game. I have also been asked by BBC Wales to be a guest on their coverage of Wales’ game with Northern Ireland on Thursday which is another great chance for me to get some more media experience.

Me, Mikey and Matt against Blues

I’m really looking forward to another week of progress and I’m sure by the time I write next weeks blog I will have a good idea of how far away from training I am.

Thanks as always for taking the time to read this!

Eddo

Jumping, hopping, jogging and Anti-Gravity treadmill

Another really positive week on my road back to full fitness. After tentatively coming out of my boot last week, I am now fully weight bearing and walking freely in my trainers. The progression this week started with some jumping, hopping and jogging on a trampette, I have also been doing some proprioception work, this has involved single leg balance work to start with, then I have progressed to more tricky surfaces and have ended the week doing single leg work on a BOSU ball whilst returning volleys and headers back to a server. If this had been mentioned to me at the start of the week, I would of struggled to envision this happening with it being such a difficult progressive exercise.

Alter G Treadmill

The big progression this week has come on an amazing piece of equipment we have at the training ground. We are so lucky to have this state of the art machinery at our disposal and it really does cut down recovery time from an injury because it gets you back into walking and running without having to be fully weight bearing. The machine I am talking about it an Alter G Anti Gravity Treadmill. The Alter G in simple terms is a treadmill that uses air pressure to create a state of anti-gravity enabling you to reduce your body weight whilst walking or running. This is great as it means I can gradually load my foot until I am ready to run outside. I zip myself into this vacuum of air and press some buttons as I feel the vacuum inflate. I have been using the Alter G at 70% of my body weight and jogging at speeds between 7kmh and 9kmh for three-minute intervals. I have done this three times this week with no pain at all, I am a long way ahead of where I expected to be at this point of my rehabilitation.

The rest of the week has been filled with icing, massage, mobility exercises, upper body weight sessions, swimming sessions, core sessions, rowing and exercise bike HIIT sessions. Its been a really hard week, but really enjoyable and I feel like I have made huge progress.

After some discussions with Phil Hayward our head physiotherapist, we have agreed that I will have a 4 or 5 days off this coming week. It has been very intense the last 6 weeks and I have been very strict mentally with everything I have done, with me being ahead of schedule it seems a good time to just shut off for a few days so I don’t end up pushing myself too hard and regretting it. I will still have a program to follow in my days off but everyone agrees that it is important for me to mentally switch off and give my body a chance to rest.

At the Manchester Arena
watching the boxing.

As well as a great week at the training ground, I have had some fun away from there too. I love boxing and was fortunate enough to be able to go and watch Scott Quigg fight Carl Frampton at the Manchester arena on Saturday night. Along with Carl Ikeme and Aaron McCarey, we were part of an incredible atmosphere that saw Carl Frampton edge the fight by points in a split decision. The noisy Irish fans and Aaron were ecstatic! Fair play to them boxers though, the nerves and expectation they must go through is immense, it is a sport I have always loved watching, I love their skill and dedication, but that moment walking down to the ring knowing there is a guy in the opposite corner wanting to knock you out must be terrifying!

Cold Tuesday nigh at Greenhous Meadow

I also got to go and watch another Shrewsbury Town game. Obviously I much prefer being fit but I rarely get to go and watch my local team as our fixtures always clash, so I am making the most of it. I got invited along to the game on Tuesday night against Rochdale as they wanted to show some recognition to the squad of players who got promoted from the Conference back into the Football League 12 years ago. This was a big season for me personally, I had made my debut the last game of the previous season in an already relegated team but during this promotion campaign I played around 20 games as a young 17 year old who would just run and run (not much has changed!) To be playing competitive football at such a young age sky rocketed my development and I fear that not enough young professionals nowadays are getting the chance to do this but that is for another (much longer) blog! Back to the game on Tuesday, it was a privilege to be invited and it was great seeing some old faces. We got a lovely reception on the pitch at half time and along with one of the other lads little boy, my boy Jack enjoyed being on the pitch running from side to side dodging the sprinklers, I even caught them taunting the Rochdale fans! Shrewsbury played really well and were more than worthy of the 2-0 score line.

Thanks as always for reading!

Hope you enjoyed it.

Eddo