"The injury was sustained in a fairly innocuous manner. I came out for a high ball at the edge of the area and claimed the ball very well over the heads of our Centre Back, John Maloney, and Hythe Town's striker, Pat Kingwell. I felt very pleased at the take after failing to clear the ball sufficiently far enough when punching an earlier high ball which lead to Hythe's equaliser. But in almost the same breath that feeling turned to immense pain as after landing too well, the ground wasn't quite hard enough for moulded boots, my studs took to the ground and I felt Kingwell fall into me. My foot was, in effect, planted, and the weight of Kingwell falling into me caused a hyper extension."

"It seemed like an age as I didn't initially fall to the ground. But, once I heard a 'popping' sound and felt the searing pain I immediately throw the ball away and fell to the ground. I closed my eyes but all I could hear was the game still going on around me. Then finally the whistle was blown and I had a number of people around me. Thankfully, the Hythe Physio was quick on the scene and was able to administer initial aid. I remember being down on the floor for while without opening my eyes. Slowly I started to get some feeling back, and then we tried to get me back on my feet. The leg gave away straight away and I had to be stretched off the field."

"The Physio was able to diagnose quite quickly that there was no broken bones and applied Cryotherapy to the injured area. Thankfully, I was able to regain stability after about 30 minutes and eventually made the drive home. The nature of the injury and the strength of my muscles around the knee meant that it was sufficiently stable to function 'normally'."

"The next day the bruising started to come out and on Monday morning I got the ball rolling in terms of getting the injury repaired. I went to the hospital to obtain X-Rays just in case I had any broken bones and none were visible. I then went to a physiotherapist in order to fully analyze the extent of the injury. The only definite injury that could be assessed to any certainty at that time was to the Medial Cruciate Ligament [MCL] (the inside of the knee connecting the femur to the tibia). A high grade sprain was diagnosed and treatment was initiated. I was then refereed to a knee specialist for further analysis as the other injuries were only speculative at that time."

"An MRI scan was ordered and this revealed that I had not only ligament damage but a fracture of the Tibial Plateau which didn’t show up in the initial x-ray. The scan also showed that the Meniscus (the cartledge that holds the Tibia to the femur) had fallen into the depression that measured an area roughly the size of a £2 coin. Additional the Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) had sustained a high grade sprain."

A diagram of the knee and all its components is as follows (taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Knee_diagram.svg); Figure 1 - Fracture of the Tibial plateau; Figure 1 - Posterior cruciate ligament Sprain;

"As a result of the discovery of the fracture a CT Scan was ordered to discover the extent of the fracture and to see whether there was any fragments of bone were visible."

"No bones were found but the depression was a lot clearer."

"Due to the time lapse between the injury and the discovery of the fracture it means that surgery would be made more difficult because the bone has already started to heal. So, on June 11th I go for an arthroscopy to mend and repair the damage to the MCL, PCL and Meniscus. Additionally I'll be having a bone graft to fix the fracture. The surgeon will take some bone from my hip then graft it to the tibial plateau fixing it with a pin and plate."

"Then I have a minimum of two weeks off work for the initial healing process after which I will have the first assessment. I will be in a brace for a total of 12 weeks starting initial physiotherapy then after that period I will be ready to step up to a full programme of rehabilitation. This will probably take 3 months before I can get to actual ball work."

"That will take me up to December time, by which point I hope to start light ball work aiming to get some game time early in the New Year. All this is subject to no problems with the rehabilitation programme and no adverse effects from the surgery."

"Once September comes around I hope to start working with Jon White in order to aid my rehabilitation."

Danny Harwood 02/06/2009