THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
~PART 2~

I had so many calls from well-wishers, too many to mention in fact, but one of the more amusing conversations I had was with Jack Walker. I had rung him to discuss parts of this book which referred specifically to him and he asked me how I was getting on.

'I'll tell you something,' Jack said in his typically forthright manner. 'If you had stayed with me at Blackburn, you would not have had this injury.'

'Why's that?' I asked.

'Because I'm luckily so-and-so and some of it would have rubbed off on you.'

Recovering from a serious injury involves a very delicate balancing act. We did not want to push things too hard in the early stages for fear of further damaging the ankle which was alreadly in a fragile state. To some extent it was a matter of letting nature's healing process take over but I was determined to do as much as was humanly possible to speed matters along.

I had to fight hard against boredom and frustration. Many hours of repetition on the same piece of apparatus can be mentally as well as physically demanding. Often I would have to grit my teeth, put on an imaginary pair of blinkers and keep myself going with positive thoughts that all this would soon be worthwhile.

There were a couple of physically harrowing along the way which I could have done without. The first came within weeks of the original operation when they took the stitches out. It was the first time I had seen my ankle since the injury and it looked a right mangled mess. I had to turn my head away, otherwise I think I might have fainted. Some two months later when the plaster was removed, it was a lot more pleasant to look at but no less painful. When I first started to run I could not put my foot down flat on the floor without feeling acute pain. I had to run on my toes because it hurt so much. The agony was matched by my disappointment because I feared the ankle was still damaged but, looking back, I suppose I was stupid to think I could go straight back to full running without some discomfort.

Gradually the pain disappeared and I was able to increase my workload. I was working from about nine in the morning until three in the afternoon with around an hour's break for lunch. My daily routine involved a circuit of exercises in the gymnasium. I spent equal amounts of time on a step machine, an exercise bike, lifting light weights and running at the swimming pool where I would run and swim for up to 45 minutes at a time. I used to get home feeling shattered every day but this was a small price to pay for getting fit.

Part Three

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