Shoulder injury nags Staniforth
Shoulder injury nags Staniforth
8/01/2008 7:43:07 AM
Chris Pike
Sportal
Scott Staniforth is back in training with the Western Force despite being uncertain as to whether his injured shoulder has fully healed.
The Wallabies back injured his shoulder in France during the World Cup but expected to be fit enough to resume full contact training by now.
However, the 30-year-old feels he is behind in his recovery and will undergo more scans in the coming weeks as he attempts to maintain a relatively injury free run with the Force, where he has played in all but one match since signing for the club.
"I'll have a scan on my shoulder on Wednesday and hopefully it's coming back to full strength," said Staniforth.
"It has been a long process, I'll get the thumbs up on Wednesday hopefully, but either way I will know more then," he said.
"I'm hopeful that it will all be healed, but I'm not sure. Hopefully the screws don't need to be taken out, we can pad it up and I'll be right for the first trial game."
When he first suffered the injury and underwent surgery, Staniforth didn't think it was serious at all, making the extended recuperation even more frustrating given it was several months ago.
"It has been frustrating because it was just a niggling injury that I didn't think was that serious at the time and four months down the track I'm still waiting to get the all clear on it," he said.
"It has been frustrating and watching the boys train hard and make improvements means I've missed out on a bit and have a lot to catch up on."
He is yet to find out if the screws will remain in his shoulder, but he has been able to keep fit during his time off.
"I have full movement with it, the strength is about 80 per cent and I hope that gets back fully in the next couple of weeks," he said.
"I aim to get back into full contact in three weeks, keep the screws in and see how I go."
"At the start, my shoulder blades were protruding a bit and they were knocking around so they thought they might have to take out the screws, but hopefully that's not the case."
With Junior Pelesasa out injured for the entire Super 14s season, Staniforth is looking to move to inside centre and Matt Giteau to five-eighth, while finals action is the aim in the Force's third season.
"I've been training a little at 12. Last year I only played the last couple of games in the centre, so I will look to be in there at 12 with Gits moving to 10," he said.
"To push for finals action is our aim. We don't want to take a step back after finishing mid table last year and wooden spoon the year before."
"We have a good squad, so we are quietly confident with the new laws and we have a mobile forward pack, so that will really help us."
