Hockey ace set for international action in Holland
LOUGHBOROUGH Town’s Mike White is in international action this weekend after recovering from a serious injury which ruled him out of hockey for four months.
White was injured playing for Loughborough in March when a hockey ball hit his thumb smashing it into six pieces, leaving him unable to play and having to undergo a two hour operation for it to be repaired.
Now he will be lining up for England Masters in the 2017 European Championship in Holland which start on Friday (August 11) and looking forward to being able to take to the field again after so long out.
He said: “The injury happened playing for Loughborough Town. I was defending a short corner and the ball crushed my thumb, fractured the knuckle and smashed top of thumb into six pieces. I had a two hour operation to reconstruct using surgical wire, this was removed after eight weeks and I then went through a number of physio sessions.
“I am still not 100 per cent, but fortunately I was selected to play for England before the injury and the management gave me time to repair and recover and I managed to pass a final fitness test to secure my place.
“Since then I have played a couple of summer games with Loughbor- ough, two friendlies in London with the England team and have been in the gym and running three times a week to maintain my fitness.”
England will be one of the favourites to qualify from their group when they face matches against Spain, Italy and Ireland. The host nation and tournament favourites, Holland, are in a group with Germany, France and Scotland.
The winners of each group face the runners up of the other group in the semi finals, before a final which is due to take place on August 19.
White said the team was targeting the gold medal.
“We are the number two ranked team in the tournament and looking to improve on the silver medal won in European Championships in 2015 when Holland beat us 3-2.”