Rams Captain Shaun Barker could well be out longer than the twelve months we reported recently.
Barker has undergone reconstructive surgery and the true scale of the damage was revealed, in fact the 29 year old defender could not have done much more damage to the knee. He had an obvious dislocation of the knee cap, which had been moved to the back of his knee. This meant nearly all the ligaments attached to the knee have suffered sever damage. The medial, anterior and cruciate ligaments had been ruptured and the surgery revealed that the posterior ligament also suffered damage.
The three and a half hour operation preformed by Dr Andy Williams to correct the damage to Barkers knee went well following a six night stay in a London Hospital. He now has the leg in a protective brace and let the leg heal. Special attention is being kept on the wound to check for infection, as this could be a major problem to the corrective surgery already undertaken.
Rehabilitation will be slow and Barker is not expected to be ready to return to any form of training until the end of next season 2012-13. So he will certainly miss the whole of next season through the injury, which is more usually seen in a high impact sport such as Rugby or American football..