Injury woe has St Ledger in limbo

Sean St Ledger still doesn’t know if he’ll be fit for Ireland’s World Cup games in March as he battles to recover from a rare injury-related condition.

The Leicester City man suffered a torn hamstring while playing for his club which ruled him out of the 1-6 drubbing by Germany in early October, and the centre-half is still desperately seeking a solution to complications which have arisen from the original injury.

Describing it as “the worst injury I’ve ever had”, he explained: “Usually with hamstrings, there’s a certain amount of recovery time and then you’re okay. But this one is obviously a bit more complicated. I attempted to get back into training a couple of times and broke down a couple of times. The problem is that it’s obviously bled and that’s stayed in there and is not going away.

“It was a pretty bad hamstring to begin with so I knew I would be a long time out but I never anticipated that it would be this long, even though the treatment that I’ve been receiving at Leicester has been first class. I can’t do a lot at the moment. I’m just going in every day and taking it easy.

“I might be going to Germany for a second opinion (to renowned Germany and Bayern Munich doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt). The last option, obviously, is surgery and have it drained and that should heal the problem. It’s not a procedure that happens very often but the option is there.”

With Richard Dunne sidelined for even longer — he hasn’t kick a ball in anger since Euros 2012 — Giovanni Trapattoni now must have real concerns about the availability in March of both his first-choice centre-halves.

“I’ve not spoken to Richard,” said St Ledger.

“There’s not really much people can say to you when you’re injured. There’s not too many words that can console you. When will I be back? I said a few weeks ago that I thought I’d be back in a couple of weeks and that wasn’t the case. So this time around, I wouldn’t want to say. It’s been so long already and I just want to take my time and make sure I’m right.”

nSean St Ledger was at City Hall, Dublin last night to help present 115 international caps to players from 10 Football For All squads who competed during 2011.