Inverness Caley Thistle player Shane Sutherland says: "I’d be lying if I said it isn’t hard." Forward talks about road to recovery from injury
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Caithness footballer Shane Sutherland believes his past experience of a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament is helping him in his recovery from serious injury this time around.
The 31-year-old has not featured for Inverness Caledonian Thistle this season after being stretchered off in last season’s play-off semi final away at Arbroath, and three months after going under the knife he is not expecting to return to action before the end of 2022.
However, he went through a similar lay-off years ago while playing for Elgin City, and Sutherland feels he is better prepared to approach rehab this time around.
“I’d be lying if I said it isn’t hard,” he admitted.
“Every day is different, some days you wake up feeling good and positive, but then if you’ve done a lot of work on your knee you wake up the next day a bit sore and stiff – which you expect to happen.
“I’m lucky and unlucky at the same time that I’ve had this injury before about five years ago, so I know the ins and outs of what’s coming.
“I know what’s good pain and what’s bad pain, when I have to speak to the physios, but it has still been tough.
“It would have been easy to sit at home and eat lots of chocolate knowing I had a long road ahead.
“I don’t want to be sitting about the house too much, because last time I was probably guilty of that not knowing what was coming my way.
“I’m obviously five years older than I was last time as well, but I’m definitely determined to come back as soon as possible.
“I won’t rush it though. I would love to say I’ll be back in three or four months, but the time will come when the time comes – I don’t want to be in a situation where I come back too early but then be injuring my knee again.”
That night at Arbroath could have ended up being Sutherland’s last game for the Caley Jags given he was out of contract in the summer.
He was grateful, then, to sign the one-year extension that had been in the works before his injury given that he knew straight away he was in for a long lay-off.
“The first time I did it, it was just a kick on the inside of my foot that turned my knee a little bit out,” he said.
“I felt a sharp pain, and at that time I didn’t think it was too serious so I tried to play the week after without really knowing, but this time I felt and heard a loud crack.
“I can’t tell you how loud it sounded to me. I knew straight away something wasn’t right then.
“The paramedics came on and for whatever reason they thought I had broken my leg. There’s a little bit of my shin that sticks out – it’s always there, but obviously the paramedics in Arbroath didn’t know that, so with what I said they thought it was a leg break.
“By the time we got to the hospital in Dundee the pain had settled down, so in my head I started to think it wasn’t a break. The x-ray came back clear, and we got a scan which revealed what it was. I knew from gut instinct as soon as I fell to the ground that it was serious.”
Sutherland played for Halkirk in the Caithness summer league before moving into senior football as a teenager with Wick Academy, scoring nine goals in 24 appearances for the Scorries before moving to Caley Thistle for his first spell in the Highland capital in 2007.
