Delaney: the pain was incredible

DAMIEN DELANEY has praised the Ipswich Town medical team for their speed in dealing with the injury that could have threatened his career.

The Republic of Ireland international was released from hospital on Monday following surgery to clear a blood clot that built up after he sustained a dead leg in training. He is now resting at home and faces up to three months on the sidelines.

“The medical people from Matt (Byard), Mark (Endacott) and Dr Lewis (Club doctor) to the surgeons at the hospital were top class,” Delaney told the club’s website.

“They all reacted really quickly and I can’t praise them enough. I’m lucky in that I had the best medical help available to deal with the situation.

“I’ve been told it was a pretty serious problem and it could have been a lot worse than it turned out if the medical staff has not acted as positively.”

Delaney is determined to get back into action as soon as possible but admits he is going into the unknown in terms of a recovery process.

“I have never had anything like this before and I hope I don’t have anything like it again,” he adds.

“I had a run of the mill collision in training and suffered a dead leg. I put an ice bag on it as I normally would and did some work in the gym but it got worse pretty quickly. The leg just felt dead.

“I hobbled back into the medical room and took the ice bag off and my thigh had ballooned up. The pain was incredible. I have never felt anything like it.

“The doc (Dr Lewis) was called and within a few minutes I was on my way to hospital.

“The surgeon said they needed to open up my leg straight away to ease the pressure and the whole thing was a nightmare to be honest.

“I lost a lot of blood and it leaves you feeling so weak. I can’t walk more than 10 yards at the moment before I feel knackered!

“There’s no real guide to follow when it comes to the recovery. It’s not like I’ve done a hamstring and know I’m going to be out for three or four weeks. At the moment all I can do is rest and let my body catch up.

“There’s no fitness work I can do. I’ve got to get my strength back first and then go from there.

“I don’t want to set a timeline but I want to get back as soon as possible and I’m very optimistic I can do that. The surgeon assured me that as they had operated within a few hours of the problem, there should be nothing to worry about in relation to a reaction or any further trouble with the leg.

“Like I said, I can’t thank the medical people, all of them, enough. There’s been talk that my career could have been over so I’ve got a lot to thank them for.”