WHEN footballers at the top level suffer a serious injury, the prospect of long months of rehabilitation is hard enough to process. But at least, for the most part, they know they will have access to the best medical attention, and therefore have the best chance of a full recovery.
Lower down the leagues, if you have the misfortune to suffer such a potentially career-ending and even life-changing injury, the stress that comes with it is only compounded by the fact that, in the vast majority of cases, you are on your own.
Paul Woods has been around the Scottish football block long enough to know this all too well. So, when the popular Stranraer veteran felt his leg buckle underneath him in a match against Forfar recently, his mind was immediately occupied by what it could mean for his family, his livelihood as an electrical engineer, and his football career. As well as the excruciating pain, of course.
“I was running back with the Forfar player and I’ve tried to get in front of him, then one of our players has come in to try and win the ball,” Woods said.
“I’ve just sort of stepped over him, then I came down on my left leg. I must have tried to turn or something as the leg has come down, and that’s when I collapsed. It all happened that fast.
“I just remember thinking that something definitely wasn’t right.”
He took a deep breath, and looked down.
“I was expecting my leg to be broken or something, but my kneecap was out to the side,” he said. “So I just popped it back in.
“I was in a lot of pain, but I just pushed it back in and then I was feeling sick at how painful it was.”
Luckily, the ambulance crew on the scene had morphine to help ease that pain. He is of a naturally sunny disposition, but easing his concerns over the severity of the injury - particularly with a young family to consider - would not be so simple.
Woods, 36, has two sons; Flynn, who is four, and four-month old Noah. And luckily, a very supportive wife in Lisa, too.
“I would normally go down and make the night feed but obviously I can’t do that just now, and it’s difficult to change him and stuff,” he said.
“I’m getting a bit sore and tight around my back as well because I’m trying to do these things now and obviously over-compensating for my knee.
“I’m just really hoping I can get it sorted as soon as possible and get back to some sort of normality in my day-to-day life.”
How far off that normality is though was underlined when the full scale of the damage was finally relayed to him following a visit to A&E at Wishaw General, and a subsequent MRI organised privately at Ross Hall.
“They told me to put weight on it and they did a few tests, and then the doctor said to me not to get my hopes up,” he said.
“He didn’t go into much detail at that point, but it’s not exactly what you want to hear. I then got the MRI back and that’s when it became clear how much damage I had actually done.
“I’ve torn my MCL, my ACL, I’ve got grade one tears in my PCL and my LCL. I didn’t even know there was that many. You hear about the cruciate and the ACL, but this was all new to me.
“Basically every ligament is affected and I’ve torn my meniscus, and partially tore the one on the other side too. There is also damage to my cartilage, and I have severe bone bruising. So, pretty much the lot!”
It is perhaps a combination of that dire prognosis and the esteem in which Woods is held throughout the game that a fundraiser launched by his club in conjunction with Stranraer supporters soon took off in fine style.
In typically modest fashion, he feels undeserving of the £4000 or so that has been raised to date towards a £9000 goal, and he desperately hopes that he can redivert those funds towards what he considers worthier causes should he receive favourable news about possible treatment through the NHS.
For now, four weeks in a brace lies ahead before his options can be fully considered. But he is simply grateful for both the monetary and moral support he has received from both current and former teammates, as well as fans from right through the divisions, as he faces the coming uncertainty with the comfort of that financial buffer should it be required.
In England, former professional Francis Duku formed a player’s union focused on non-league pros called Our Game following his own career-ending injury, with the aim of expediting treatment and complementing help already in place from the PFA. A gap that if filled in Scotland, could potentially benefit the likes of Woods.
“I know that sometimes in football you are left to fend for yourself with things like this, so the support has been really humbling,” he said.
“The generosity of people and the comments I’ve had have overwhelmed me a wee bit. It’s been nice to read all of that, but at the same time you’re wishing it hadn’t happened.
“I’ve had loads of folk on the phone offering me help and that has been amazing. Down at Stranraer as well, the chairman and the guys on the committee have been great, so I’ve been really lucky.
“It probably doesn’t reflect very well on the game that players are left in that situation. I know Kieran Gibbons [of Open Goal Broomhill] is going through it as well, he’s needing an operation and he’s been fundraising too, selling football cards and that sort of thing.
“It just adds to the stress of it all. You’re under enough pressure thinking about things like work and your family, so trying to do that at the same time obviously adds to all of that. It’s not great.
“A lot of players have had to go through it. But from my point of view, Stranraer are stepping up and doing this for me, so I can’t really complain on that side of it.
“Guys have obviously had to pay a lot of money in the past to get their operations, and it’s not a great position to be in. I don’t know why the clubs don’t have insurance or a fund for these sort of circumstances.
“It’s just kind of known that you have to fend for yourself if anything like this happens, which isn’t good for the players.
“We’ve got jobs and families to support like everyone else.”
You can donate to Paul's fundraiser by clicking here.
