Wick Academy’s Jack Henry hopes to make a football comeback as he begins his recovery from a double leg break.
The Scorries midfielder sustained the injury in last month’s 6-0 Breedon Highland League loss to Formartine United at North Lodge Park.
But Henry, 31, is remaining upbeat about his plight, and said: “I’m still in a bit of pain, but the swelling is coming down and I’m on the mend.
“I’ve been cooped up in the house resting for the last few weeks.
“Hopefully soon I’ll be able to get to physio and see if I can get back to playing football at some level.
“The club has gone through a hard time and I feel bad not being able to contribute.
“Prior the injury, I was going to consider over the summer what I wanted to do and, while I haven’t given it great thought, I’d like to get back to football at some level.”
Henry thinks he will only be able to return to the pitch if he gets over both the physical and mental effects of the serious injury, adding: “I’ll need to see how the leg is in time and also how the mental side is as well, because I wouldn’t want to be playing and pulling out of challenges and things like that.”
Henry’s gratitude to Formartine physio
Henry was keen to thank Formartine physio Jenni Butler for her treatment and for driving him to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in her car to be assessed when it became clear the wait for an ambulance could stretch to close to five hours.
He also stressed he had no complaints with the tackle which led to his injury.
Henry, who has played for Wick since 2017, added: “There’s no hard feelings on my part. It’s one of those things in football, it wasn’t a bad challenge. There wasn’t any malice in it from either player.
“The ball was there to be won, I got a toe to it and planted my foot and just got caught instead of the ball.
“I’ve probably made 1,000 of those tackles and never had a problem, but on the day it happened (it was a problem) and it’s one of those unfortunate things.
“I think it was Daniel Park that I challenged and he messaged me afterwards, there’s no hard feelings.
“Formartine’s physio Jenni was really good and I’m lucky she was there.
“She kept me calm and was really good. When it happened, they phoned for an ambulance and they said it would be 20 minutes, but then, after about half an hour, she phoned again and they said it could up to four hours.
“But she put me in the back of her car and drove me to the hospital in Aberdeen.
“I was very lucky she was there and I’m grateful for the way she looked after me.”
Henry ‘never thought about’ impact of serious injury on day job
As well as being unable to play football, Henry has been off work since the game on March 18 and admits he hadn’t considered the consequences of a serious injury until it happened.
Henry, who works as a decommissioning operator at Dounreay, said: “In terms of the impact on your work and things, it’s something I never thought about until it happened to me.
“I’ve played with boys who have had bad injuries and I’ve never thought about it.
“It was only when I was waiting to go to the hospital that I started to think about how bad it could be.”
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