McLean’s closing in on a return to action

MATT McLean cannot wait to pull on the Worthing Raiders jersey again, after missing the last 13 months through injury.
Matt McLean (right)Matt McLean (right)
Matt McLean (right)

Raiders’ Welsh full-back has been ruled out since November, 2012, after he suffered a broken fibula and dislocated ankle.

He is hoping to be back in action next month now, and said: “It’s obviously been a long time out, just over a year. We’ve targeted January, so I’ll, hopefully, get back into training after Christmas.

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“It’s taken a lot longer than I expected. We’d originally targeted getting back involved in the summer. But I had some extra complications, especially with the ankle. The leg seems to have healed now and the surgeon is happy that the ankle is sort of in the right place. There’s probably still a bit of scar tissue lying about but I had an extra operation to clean that out, so I shouldn’t be too far away.

“It’s still a little bit sore but I think it’s at a stage where I’m going to have to try to test it. I’ve been working away the last six or seven weeks and I’m very much looking forward to getting back.

“I’ve got used to not playing and I’ve got used to watching, so it’s got to a point now where I know I’m not that far away, so the anticipation is sort of creeping in.

“I just can’t wait. To be honest, I’m dead excited to get back involved.”

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On Raiders’ season so far, McLean said: “It’s been positive in a sense but frustrating at the same time. We’ve shown that we can compete with pretty much any team. There’s only a couple of sides who have really put us to bed. In every other game, we’ve been there or thereabouts.

“We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve picked up bonus points to keep the score ticking over but those one or two points could have been turned into fours or fives. It would make a massive difference to where we are in the league.

“Unfortunately, we’ve lost five by only one or two points. It’s positive in a sense that we’ve shown we can compete but equally frustrating in that we’re better than some of the teams we’ve been defeated by. But we’ll keep working at it and, hopefully, the results will come.”