Injury a real heel for Terris
Dan Terris’ heel issue is set to keep him out for the rest of Canterbury United’s campaign, an injury he labels the ‘‘most frustrating’’ of his long career.
The veteran defender, Canterbury’s most capped national league player with 154 matches, hasn’t featured in this season’s Stirling Sports Premiership due to a plantar fascia tear to his left heel.
Terris picked up the injury at training ahead of their second match against Southern in late October. It has tested him both physically and mentally, describing himself as a ‘‘nightmare’’ sideline observer.
English-born Terris got through 80 minutes of training on Thursday night, the most he has all season, but is some way off proving he is up to the demands of a full match.
The 35-year-old has been with Canterbury since the first national league season in 2004-05 and is in a race against time with two round games left. ‘‘I feel pretty good. It’s one of those ones, where if it goes again, I’m looking at another long layoff. I’ve got to be really careful,’’ he said.
Sixth-placed Canterbury, who are fighting to stay in top four contention, play Eastern Suburbs in Auckland on Sunday.
Their final match is at home to Team Wellington on March 19, following a break for the group stage of the Oceania Champions League.
If Terris doesn’t get on the pitch this season, he has vowed to be ready for the 2017-18 national league and has no plans to call time on his Dragons’ career.
He looks poised to work his way back through his Cashmere Technical club side in the Mainland Premier League.
Terris has been running for over a month and been carrying out two to three sessions a week with a personal trainer.
‘‘Physical stuff is not the issue, it’s more on the loading when running, landing and jumping. Because it’s on my heel and the underside of my foot, if it goes again, I won’t be walking for a good six weeks.’’
Over the past 12 national league seasons, Terris has enjoyed a pretty good run with injuries. Apart from an Achilles problem in 2011 and a damaged kneecap, which kept him out of the start of last season, he’s managed to stay on the park.
His heel injury was particularly annoying compared to those.
‘‘It’s up there with one of the most frustrating injuries. The research around this particular type of injury is that it’s not a great injury to have in terms of timeframes and a few unknowns around the recovery of it.’’
When it flared up at training he didn’t initially know what he’d done, but a scan the next day revealed the severity.
‘‘I’d never even heard of plantar fascia before.’’
Terris said it was difficult to accept given he had a solid preseason and played in a warm-up match against Southern. He was on the bench in Canterbury’s opening match against Tasman. Canterbury probably need a maximum of six points in their final two games to sneak into the top four.
Outside of leaders Auckland City, Terris said little separated the next five teams on the table. The Dragons might be left to rue home losses to lowly Hamilton Wanderers and Southern should they miss out.
‘‘In our case, we haven’t picked up some points where we should have.’’