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Ben Herd on getting injured, North London derby glee his Premier League XI
It's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote to you. Well, where do I start? We have been on a decent run since a win against my old team, Shrewsbury, we even occupied 4th place, albeit only for a few days. Last week’s game, away to Port Vale, started off quite well for me, we took the lead and were playing some good stuff, but my day was to take a bit of a turn: as I tracked my opposing winger, I suddenly stopped, only for my studs to get caught in the turf and for my entire body weight to come down on my left ankle. I have to confess, I was in a lot of pain and immediately knew that I had injured myself quite badly. The physio, Wayne Jones, was on the scene and initially we both thought I may have fractured my fibula bone. Thankfully, St John's ambulance people were also close by and were really good in getting me back to the physio's room after they had given me quite a bit of gas and air. It's funny how that stuff can really make you feel like you don't have a care in the world. I think I was cracking jokes in the physio room as I was being examined by the doctor and apparently laughing for no apparent reason! Thankfully, the injury isn't as bad as first feared and it would appear that it is mostly ligament and tendon damage.
Being injured is never great and this season has seen me have two 'freak' injuries, the first on the opening day of the season, I injured my medial knee ligament after an awkward fall. It is even more frustrating as we are in an excellent position in the League and having been in this position a couple of times before in my career, I really feel that my experience could benefit the team in our quest to make the play-offs. Hopefully I can play again this season, I am seeing a specialist in London most days called Ronan McCarthy, or 'The Guru' as I call him. 'The Guru' is by far the best person I have ever seen in terms of getting injuries sorted out quickly, Dave Hibbert and I initially went to see him last summer and let me tell you, he is unbelievable, he got Hibbo back within 2 weeks of having a grade 2 groin strain, normally it take between 4-6 weeks to come back from. Let's hope he can work his magic on me and have me back before too long!
With only a handful of games left to play, it would appear that the top 3 places in League 2 are now decided, but the play-off chase is really shaping up with about 9 or 10 teams battling it out for 7 places. With us losing at home to Torquay the other night and Rochdale losing at home it does seem like anybody can beat anybody in this League. At this stage of the season, it takes experienced players to really come to the fore and just settle everyone down and not let last minute jitters come into it. Hopefully, our game on Tuesday night was just a blip and we will be back on track come Saturday against Crewe. I do sometimes look at the League table and think 'if only we had beaten them, we would be in the top 3.’ I think back to games against Nott's County and Dagenham, two sides that we played in the space of a few days, we conceded a last minute equaliser to Nott's and let a 2 goal lead slip to Dagenham, two games where we only got 1 point out of 6 when the points were all but in the bag, infuriating!
My week did pick up slightly, bit of an understatement, as my team Spurs thrashed those Gooners, 2-1. Luckily, I was at White Hart Lane on Wednesday night and let me tell you, the atmosphere was unbelievable, I don't think I have ever seen a better debut goal than that of Danny Rose, what a hit and it doesn't matter if he never kicks a ball for Spurs again he will always be legend for scoring against the enemy!
It's this time of year my fellow professionals and I get the chance to vote on our players of the season. I have already submitted my League 2 team, so I thought I would do my Premier League team of the year:
Joe Hart
Branislav Ivanovic
Michael Dawson
Nemanja Vidic
Ashley Cole
Aaron Lennon
Frank Lampard
James Milner
Carlos Tevez
Didier Drogba
Wayne Rooney
Posted: Saturday, April 17th, 2010 @ 11:04 am by Ben Herd
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