Six months on from his agonising ACL injury, Matty Wolfe is well on the road to recovery as he continues his rehabilitation programme with our medical department.
So much so, that the midfielder will be making a return to the grass this week as he ticks off another milestone and gets another step closer to pulling on the red shirt again.
“I’m feeling very good, to be fair,” stated Wolfe. “I’m outside running on Thursday, and I’ve just been smashing the gym. Obviously, it’s not a nice injury to get, but there’s worse things going on in life, so you’ve got to be grateful for where you are and what you’re doing, get on with it and keep smiling.
“It’s the first real challenge – it was something in my head that I wanted to get out on the grass as soon as possible. It’s been a long time, but you can’t rush stuff like knees, so I’m just buzzing to get out there and get running again.”
This isn’t the first time, unfortunately, that Wolfe has been sidelined for a lengthy spell during his Barnsley career.
The 23-year-old has had to deal with numerous setbacks but has shown incredible mental resilience to ensure he returns each time stronger than before – and this time will be no different!
“It’s tough being out for long durations of time – before it was my back, which was because of growing when I was younger – this is just an injury that I couldn’t really prevent; it was just a freak incident,” he said.
“It’s tough, but like I said, I’m grateful to be coming in day after day to do stuff, so I can’t get too down about it – I’ve just got to keep smiling and get on with it.”
Injuries as complex as these are an arduous process, and it’s important not to rush back for fear of suffering a recurrence.
With that in mind, Wolfe believes he is on track with his rehabilitation and is keen to ensure he is fit and ready before making his long overdue return to action.
“I’ve had a chat with Gav [Walker], and I’ve told him what I thought, and he’s told me how it’s looking, and he said it’s looking really good, and I could be back before the timescale it was,” he discussed.
“But he basically said there’s no point; it’s a big injury and we need to get it right and make sure I’m ready go. Hopefully around December or January, I should be available and back playing games.”
