Defender Macaulay Gillesphey spoke about his delight at being well along the road to recovery from a cartilage injury which has ruled out since the middle of January, coincidentally playing his last game for the club that month just hours before new manager Steven Pressley took up his new post.
The 23-year-old, who joined the Blues on a two-year deal ahead of this campaign, is set to see his surgeon next week before stepping up his rehabilitation programme.
Speaking about his current situation ahead of his Thursday morning session, he told us: “My knee is feeling good and strong so I’m definitely getting there.
“It’s been a frustrating period with having to watch all the lads playing and training while I’ve been stuck in the gym. I wasn’t able to do much for the first couple of weeks after the operation, but I’ve stepped it up now. It’s all about building on it and getting back to normal as quickly as I can.”
Having first felt that there was an issue with his knee at the beginning of December, he explained how the decision had been made to continue to play through that period, albeit under the close guidance and monitoring of the club’s medical department.
“I’d been thinking that something wasn’t quite right for a while, but it got to a certain point half way through December where I started to really feel it,” he told us. “It was during the first half of the Colchester game where I felt a bit of pain and I knew I had to come off during the break, because I was worried about making it worse.
“I didn’t really know what it was at that time. I just felt the twinge so I spoke to Dolly about it. He sent me for a scan and it came back that I had a tear in my cartilage. The advice from the surgeon was that I could play through it until the end of the season, and then I could have the operation at that point.
“We carried on with that, but obviously it got worse and I started to struggle to even get warmed up properly for training. That’s when I spoke to Dolly again and I decided it was time to get it sorted.
“Initially we looked at getting it done at the start of January, but I wanted to help the team at that time because we didn’t have many players, because of the injury and loan situation. I didn’t want to let my team mates down, so I had yet another chat with Dolly about it.
“We decided to delay it until the end of the month, by which time we knew we’d have new players in and injured players back and there’d be enough cover. That was the thinking behind the decisions we all made.”
“I will admit that I could still feel that it wasn’t right when I was playing and training, but once you get into a game you forget about it and it kind of goes away, because of the adrenalin and stuff,” he said. “Even then there were moments in games when I’d turn, or pass a ball, or whatever, and there would be a bit of pain.
“The added frustration was that the team was playing well and I felt like I was part of that. But that actually became another reason for me to want to get the operation done in the end, because I knew the knee problem was starting to affect my game, and I didn’t want that to be happening.
“It felt like I wasn’t quite on it, and that starts to get into your head as well. I think I’d told Dolly a couple of times that I was really starting to feel it, but he was great and he helped me along when I started to doubt myself.”
On the operation on the knee during that final week of January, he said: “It went really well and, to be fair, it feels like time has flown by. Hopefully it won’t be too long until I’m involved in light training and then I can start to get back to full fitness.
“I see the surgeon next week and we’re all expecting him to give me the all-clear, which will be great. There’s still a good amount of games to go and we’re all still determined to make sure we’re pushing for promotion.
“I just want to be back and involved, so the sooner I’m ready the better for me. I can’t wait to get back. I know I’ll have to work hard in training to try and impress the manager.”
“He’s obviously just come in and I’ve never been through anything like this before, where there’s been a change during the season like this,” he concluded. “It’s different, but the new gaffer has come in and I think he’s brilliant.
“The way he is with the players is different class so I’m looking forward to trying to get into his team. It’s a good time to be coming back as far as I’m concerned because there’s a lot still to play for.”
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