Liverpool FC Forum

[Scottbot]

Article on the BBC Sport web-page paints a slightly more optimistic view than some of the other stories kicking around

Cisse 'faces anxious injury wait'

By Phil Harlow 


 
Injury puts Cisse out for season
Report: Blackburn 2-2 Liverpool 
Liverpool's Djibril Cisse will have to wait at least two months to learn how long he will be out of the game, according to a leading physiotherapist.

Cisse underwent surgery on Sunday after breaking his leg against Blackburn.

"Liverpool now face a big waiting game to see if the bones have healed," Daryl Martin, a physio with the English Institute of Sport, told BBC Sport.

"You hope that they will heal in six to eight weeks, but this type of surgery is notorious for taking much longer."

Martin, who used to work for Fulham and is currently dealing with a professional footballer suffering with an identical injury, added: "It could take six to nine months and the absolute worst-case scenario is 18 months, but on average it would be three or four months.

"He won't be able to start his rehab until the bone shows some signs of healing."

Cisse suffered a comminuted fracture of the tibia and fracture of the fibula after an innocuous-looking challenge from Blackburn's Jay McEveley on Saturday.

"It did look like a fairly harmless incident and it's unusual for it to result in such a bad injury," said Martin.

"But as to why some tackles end up this way - that's the million-dollar question that no-one can answer.

 
He's going to have to work very hard before he can get back on a football pitch

English Institute of Sport physio Daryl Martin 
"It just comes down to bad luck. Cisse has probably experienced tackles like that 100 times before without a problem, but on this occasion his leg could simply not cope with the amount of force."

The 23-year-old, who arrived for £14m in the summer from Auxerre, had pins inserted in his leg in an operation on Sunday.

"A comminuted fracture usually infers that the bone has been broken into more than two pieces," explained Martin.

"If the two ends of a broken bone are in line with each other then you can just put someone in plaster and the two bones will heal together very quickly.

"But I can only assume that, because he had metal inserted in his leg, the ends of his bone are quite far from each other or even overlapping."

Liverpool have said Cisse will be out of action for the rest of the season, but Martin claims that an end-of-season return is not out of the question for the Frenchman.

"If everything goes to plan then five months out is not an unrealistic target," he added.

"But if the bones don't start to heal properly then it could potentially be this time next year. And unfortunately there is a chance that it's a career-ending injury.

"Nine times out of 10 players come back without any long-term problem, but unfortunately there is a minority of cases where that doesn't happen.

"He's going to have to work very hard before he can get back on a football pitch."

[barnesrush]

nine out of ten sounds a bit optimistic but lets hope for the best. get well soon djibril our thoughts are with you. any news on something for us all to sign and get to him?

[vlady16.1]

when i watched the game it didn't look that bad but i just finished watching the highlight show and it looked horrific-- i'm heartened to hear that the probability of recovery is good

we all need to say a little prayer for him

[kazza]

The way the Dr said that he has to work hard before he can get back on the pitch (on a couple of occasions) means that it is about his mental strength whether this will turn out to be a career threatning injury. Let's hope he does not get depressed and put his head down (like he seemed to on the pitch) and fights to get back to where he was.The break sounds bad, let's hope he fights hard for his future.

[stmichael]

according to the liverpool website, benitez visited cisse in hospital last night. the guy seemed to be in high spirits considering what has happened and said that he hoped to be back for the last month of the season. the diagnosis shows that cisse faces 6 months on the sidelines.

if this is true then it's great news.

[Woollyback]

2 words

Henrik Larrson

Another two words:

David Busst.

He was destined to get smashed up with a name like that.

Seriously though, the problem for Buust was that the bone actually severed arteries and muscle, I remember they took ten minutes to clean up the pitch by the goal.

At least with Cisse there was no severing of muscle groups or breaking of the skin.

I hope like hell Cisse can "do a Larsson" but talking about David Busst, he very nearly lost his LEG, never mind his career. He was still having surgery years after the break and surgeons for a long time thought he would have to have his leg amputated below the knee. But to be fair, Busst's break was a compound fracture with bits of bone poking out of the skin all over the place, and with it being at Old Trafford a nasty infection was almost inevitable

[stmichael]

that david busst injury was the worst injury i have ever seen in football. if i'm not mistaken it was that bad that dion dublin threw up on the pitch and schmeichel needed counselling afterwards having heard and witnessed the whole thing.

people whinge about the ridiculous wages that players earn but it puts it into perspective when you consider that one bad tackle and your career could be over.

[Woollyback]

I feel sorry for the players to whom something like this happens when they're with a small club and haven't been earning mega-bucks. I know the PFA pays them something but I bet it isn't much.