There is light at the end of the tunnel for United striker Rob Hall.
The popular winger has been on the sidelines all season with a knee injury; the second time he has been out with a long-term problem, which is something that he admits left him ‘embarrassed and scared’. In a remarkable interview in iFollow Rob told us:
“I am better than I was, and can see the positives now. I feel stronger and will see a specialist towards the end of this month. Hopefully I get the word to start some running again but I’ve been through this before and am not going to get carried away or start setting timescales. I’m 25 now and feel like I know how to deal with this; let’s just keep going and keep making progress.
“It has been really tough. I deleted all my social media and have only been to about three games. Even then I would sit with my hood up and not want to talk to people: that’s just not me, as most people will tell you. But I was embarrassed and scared and I didn’t want to drag people down with me. Even now I have days like that: people I am close to recognise the signs and leave me alone if I need some space!
“But I am definitely making progress now. I even turned on my Twitter again! Then I had to scroll through all the messages and I realised how much I had missed. I had a lot of messages and want to thank people for those. I hope I didn’t look rude not replying! But I couldn’t handle those at the time. Everyone is different. Shandon Baptiste replied straight away when I messaged him after his injury. He is strong and will be back from his injury. Jon Obika is the same; Jon is a quiet guy but mentally very tough too.
“Amy Cranston and the medical team have been brilliant with me. She has followed my rehab day to day and seen my moods and how my body is doing things then changing in other ways, but it is getting the right results and I can’t thank her enough; I know I can be a pain and I have been for her, so for her to put up with me is a blessing! I’m not going to lie, there was a time when I was on a rehab machine for eight hours a day and you start thinking ’is it worth it? I’ll just do six today'. But somehow you make it to eight and then you start thinking about doing ten, just to do that bit extra that might make the difference.
“The lads have been great with me, as has the Gaffer too. He likes a joke but knows when to be serious and as with everyone else, they have been so supportive. I have been out helping coach the Academy kids and that has been good as well. So there are good things happening, and I’m feeling positive.
“Let’s keep that going, keep doing the work, and hopefully it’s not too long before I am out there in that yellow shirt again.”