Hawks defender Dan Strugnell speaks to me about the injury and recovery process:
Hawks defender Dan Strugnell has had the far from the ideal start to the new season. 45 minutes against Newport IOW was as good as it got for him as injury would scupper his pre-season. But after a scan and injection over the past few weeks, the man affectionately known as ‘struggs’ is hoping to return to the squad sooner rather than later.
“Touch and go” he told me “I’ve been working with Skills (the physio) closely on my rehab trying to get back where I was. I’ve had a few setbacks recently so it’s been like 2 steps forward and then 3 steps back at the minute which has been really frustrating.”
What has made the injury even more frustrating for the 25-year old is the rarity of the injury. He explained how “it is a rare injury so the treatment for it is hard to isolate it. There’s not really a time frame on it, we’ll see how it goes, we’re treating it and so hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.”
For Strugnell it has been an injury which is “massively frustrating” considering how “lucky I’ve been with injuries so far in my career. This is the first time that I’ve missed a pre-season, so that’s very frustrating but the boys are doing very well so I’m happy to see that. I’ve got to focus on my recovery and getting back”.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult (to get back into full fitness) I’m basically having a pre-season when I get back. So I will be doing my own things, I’m self employed so to speak coming into training doing things by myself but they’re things that I’m more than happy to do. It is just a case of showing the right attitude and putting the hard work in and hopefully that will put myself back into contention for getting back into the team.”
And Strugnell will be hoping to swap the stand for the turf sooner rather than later as he continues the long road to recovery with all at the club hoping to see him in a Hawks jersey once more.
Henry Deacon
Henry Deacon Media 