Berra is ready to explode
Hearts captain Christophe Berra admits the damage caused by his hamstring muscle being ripped from the bone was so severe that the surgeon said it was akin to “a bomb going off”.
The 33-year-old sustained the excruciating injury in the August victory over Celtic, and was initially told he could be sidelined for up to six months.
However, some eight weeks ahead of schedule – and with 45 minutes of action in a friendly against Linlithgow Rose on Wednesday behind him – the influential defender is hoping to be back on the frontline for today’s visit of Rangers.
A bit like Berra’s hamstring, Hearts’ season has imploded recently.
A promising start to the campaign, which saw the Gorgie side set the pace in the Premiership until just three weeks ago, has faltered in the wake of unrelenting injury woes.
The Jambos have taken just one point from their last 12 amid a fivegame winless and scoreless run in all competitions as further setbacks to John Souttar, Steven Naismith and Uche Ikpeazu have diminished Hearts’ strength.
With this in mind, Berra is delighted his rehabilitation period is now at an end.
“I’ve been training for about a week now, although I had been training with the physios for two or three weeks and the sports scientist before that,” he said.
“I was initially told I would be out for four to six months.
“I had my surgery, and the surgeon said when he was in there, it looked like a bomb had gone off because of the damage to my tendons. That’s how bad they were.