Wallace Keeping Busy On Road To Recovery
Today was a significant day for injured flanker David Wallace as he was able to drive himself to the University of Limerick to work with the Munster physios, exercising the knee he damaged against England last month.
In terms of injuries around the Rugby World Cup, Munster have suffered the greatest toll with a luckless Jerry Flannery the latest player to join an injury list which includes Tomas O’Leary, Felix Jones and David Wallace.
Of that quartet only Flannery made the departure lounge for New Zealand. O’Leary has been troubled with a back injury since, Jones limped out of Ireland’s home warm-up game against France and Wallace did likewise a week later.
Wallace is facing into a lengthy rehabilitation programme after sustaining serious knee ligament damage during the first half of Ireland’s clash with England at the Aviva Stadium last month.
It will be a hard road back, especially when the flanker relays the extent of the injury. “I ruptured my medial, I ruptured my cruciate and I broke off my meniscus which is a type of cartilage at the top of your fibula – a spongy bit that takes the impact — and I dented the upper part of my knee as well,” he said in an interview last week.
“A bit of cartilage, so they did a bit of micro-fracturing which Rob Kearney had done recently. They drill into it a bit, make it bleed.
“Those are the four main things I did. The programme of recovery means I’m on crutches and in a brace for six weeks and they kind of say it’s a six-to-nine month period – but it might be five in some cases and I’m hoping it will be a bit sooner.
“Depending on how things go, how complicated it is and how quickly the range comes back.”
Currently there is no information on when Flannery will return, but the other players were all in UL this morning with Wallace getting himself there by car and driving it himself.
“I’m mobile now again and driving today for the first time. Once I’m driving I can get out of the house a bit more under my own steam,” said the 35-year-old, who had his operation at the Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry in late August.
“It’s no harm anyway because you just sit at home taking care of it. And keeping it moving. They gave me a machine, a continuous movement machine.
“It’s good for the joint to keep it moving and working on it. Pretty boring right enough but best for the knee.”
Speaking to the Munster Rugby website, he discussed what exercises are part of his daily routine and the progress he is making, with or without crutches.
“In terms of physio stuff it’s single squats, double leg squats, doing balancing passing balls, walking in the pool, bit of aqua jogging. It kind of varies from week to week but I’m almost walking properly on it now without crutches.
“I’ll probably have good days and bad days so some days I’ll use the crutches (for the exercises) and some days I mightn’t use them at all. I’m happy with the way it’s gone so far.
“I’ve been in since 8.30am this morning. It’s now 12, going non-stop, just weights or physio or in the pool so that’s good too, it’s keeping me occupied,” he added.