Duckworth raring to go after injury lay-off

WHEN MICHAEL Duckworth dislocated his shoulder against Halesowen on February 8, his season looked over.

But the defender has been given a second chance to finish the campaign and help FC Halifax Town into the Football League.

The full-back has had to contend with injury setbacks before since joining Town from Fleetwood in 2017, but says his shoulder injury was the worst yet, undergoing surgery on it around 17 weeks ago.

”It popped out to the back, so I had to wait to get it scanned to see if I’d fractured anything, and then I got it put back in,” he said.

”They said the recovery time would be 16 weeks, and this was before we knew we’d be going into lockdown, so luckily for me, I’ll be able to play in the play-offs.

”It was bad, not nice at all, the worst pain I’ve ever felt. It was horrendous.

”I couldn’t see any physios in lockdown so I’ve had to do the rehab myself, but it feels good.”

He added: ”I’m buzzing that I can play and hopefully we can finish the season strongly.”

Duckworth is under no illusions about how much of a test next Friday’s clash at Boreham Wood will be.

”A tough one, very tough,” he said. “If we defend well I feel like we’ll have a good chance.

“Everyone’s classing us as underdogs as well, which is great for us really.

“That spurs us on a bit more to go and prove that we’re good enough to play in the next division up.”