Kneesy does it!
Strictly ENGLAND cricketer Darren Come Gough won spectacularly in the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday. But for Dancing several years the 35-year-old Yorkshireman has struggled with crippling knee injuries and feared he might never winner walk a
TEN weeks ago, I was a bloke who had never danced. In fact, over the past eight years a succession of knee injuries had left me in so much pain that at one point I even found it difficult to walk — let alone consider dancing.
And three specialists told me I’d never play cricket again.
Yet on Saturday night, with more than a little help from Lilia Kopylova, I won Strictly Come Dancing. It’s been an amazing journey.
It’s hardly surprising I’ve had problems with my knees: for fast bowlers like me, every time we bowl, seven times our body weight goes through our legs. I’m 14 stone, so this is a huge weight to keep putting on my knees.
I’ve had surgery on my left knee twice and four operations on my right. My problems started with a tendon at the back of my left knee in 1997 and I was forced to withdraw from the England team playing the West Indies.
After eight months of pain, I had an exploratory keyhole operation and it was discovered that the problem lay with my hamstring tendons.
These cord- like fibres, which attach the hamstring muscle to the leg bones, were just pinging off my bone so they had to be stitched back in an operation that left a five- inch scar behind my knee. I’ve had no problems with that knee since then.
BUT in 2001, my right knee problems started. I was playing for England in Dunedin, New Zealand, when that knee twisted underneath me and I felt something tear. I didn’t act like your typical footballer rolling around on the pitch. In fact, I carried on for eight more deliveries and took two wickets. Somehow adrenalin just kept me going.
But within minutes of coming off the pitch, I could hardly walk. Back in England, a doctor said I had torn my cartilage right across the middle. Two days later I was operated on.
Just a few months after the operation, my fitness was back to a decent level. But the next year the same knee started getting painful again.
Long-term wear on the joint had all but eroded my cartilage, leaving bone rubbing on bone every time I bowled. Without any cartilage to soak up the pressure, the force could be spectacularly painful.
In March 2002, I had a first keyhole operation on that knee. Two more followed in the next few months as my knee broke down twice because I was trying to rush back to cricket.
In November, my knee felt good enough for me to go to Australia with the England team, but before the Ashes, the pain came back. A knee specialist in Adelaide advised me to ‘find another job’. My last operation was in a private hospital in Leeds in summer 2003, in which I had all my cartilage taken out because the last remaining bits were flaking off and causing irritation and pain. Cartilage helps to cushion the weight-bearing parts of your knee, so without it I obviously have to be more careful.
It still wasn’t right and I knew if I kept going I’d have to have my right knee replaced.
But another operation would keep me out of the game for at least 18 months. At my age it would have been hard to get fully fit after that time out.
Then I heard about a surgeon in Colorado called Richard Steadman, who has pioneered new techniques in knee surgery and extended the careers of several leading sportspeople, including footballer Alan Shearer and tennis player Martina Navratilova. On my way out to America I braced myself for the worst, thinking my career might be over. However, to my great relief, after a thorough examination Dr Steadman said that I wouldn’t need another operation. He explained that to get my knee back to a level fit enough to play again, I just needed to build muscles up around the knee. He said I’d had good care, but had just pushed myself back to bowling too quickly.
He advised me to take six weeks without running or making any sideways movements of the knee, and concentrating on purely on exercises to strengthen it.
Dr Steadman also recommended a German doctor, Hans Muller- Wolfhart, whose treatment has helped some top sports stars, including footballers Ronaldo and Michael Owen. Mr Muller- Wolfhart drained off some fluid from my knee, then injected the area with Hylart, a viscose fluid drawn from compressing the comb on a cockerel’s head, and anti-inflammatory drugs.
This apparently acts like an oil to stop the bones in my knee grinding together.
Incredibly, the instant I had the injection it felt much better. He said if I’d seen him from the start, I wouldn’t have needed any operations because it would have lubricated my knee joint.
Despite this success I decided to retire from Test cricket — I’d taken 229 wickets in 58 Tests, a record of which I’m really proud.
I’m still involved in one- day internationals and played against the Australians last summer. And I’d love to play in the Cricket World Cup in 2007. At county level, I’m in the Essex team.
I decided not to tour Pakistan with the England team so I could spend more time around my family.
Then the Strictly Come Dancing offer came. They wanted an England cricketer after the Ashes victory in the summer. Did I ever expect to get so far? I think I just wanted to have a go — let people see another, less macho side to me. I had to be realistic, too: my knee could easily have let me down again.
I didn’t know just how physical ‘ Strictly’ would be. Perhaps if I had, I would have worried more about my joints.
But the amazing thing about the dancing is that it’s strengthened muscles near my knees, so much so that my team physio says they are much improved.
It’s really helped the muscle in the thigh just above the knee joint. It’s the one that helps to straighten the leg and hold the kneecap in the right place, so that it can move smoothly without going off- centre.
This is important to me because any misalignment of the kneecap can damage the under-surface of it. As I don’t have any cartilage, this would be very painful.
When I started rehearsing, I was worried I might not be able to continue because I was getting cramp in my right muscle near my knee because it was weak.
But the dancing has really improved it. I should have done it years ago, but you don’t think that dancing will cure a sportsman’s knee problems. My only experience of dancing before this was, like many men, jumping up and down after a few pints of beer when I was a teenager.
But I’ve loved every minute of the show. My dancing partner Lilia has been a brilliant teacher. Our attitude was always to just enjoy it and whatever marks we got, we were happy.
ESPITE a shaky start,
when the judges
started criticising how
I held my hands, I
really began to love dancing. I particularly loved doing The Caterpillar, an old rock ’n’ roll trick in which I kind of wriggle along the floor.
I was waiting for the chance to do that, so when we got the Jive, I did it and it was lots of fun. My other favourite dances have been the paso doble and the foxtrot.
No one was more surprised than me that we did so well — except perhaps Lilia, who thought we’d go out in the first week. To get so far was unbelievable. My knee still swells up. Some days it is worse than others. It’s arthritic, basically, but the dancing really does help a lot. I’m going to carry on in my spare time to help keep my knee strong. A lot of other sportspeople are becoming aware of the healing power of dance. And after my success on the show and the obvious improvements it’s brought to my knee, there is now even talk about having dancing sessions as part of our pre- season training at Essex.
It’ll be a laugh, great camaraderie and strengthen our legs.
I’m 35 now, so I don’t know how long I’ve got left to play. My head and heart are still in it, but it’s just whether my body will let me. It’s mostly down to my knees because if I get another injury at my age, I may have to be realistic.
You never know, I may even have the Darren Gough Dance School one day. If I could help people enjoy dancing and get sportspeople back to fitness, I’d love that.