Liam Goes Under the Knife
Monday 16th November 2009
Everyone was disappointed with defeat at Dunfermline on Saturday afternoon and there is fresh frustration today with confirmation of the news that leading scorer Liam Buchanan will be missing for several weeks after undergoing surgery.
Manager Ian McCall was able explain the circumstances behind Liam going under the surgeon's knife to www.ptfc.co.uk a little earlier today.
"Liam requires a very simple hernia operation. It's something that we knew was possible since Liam had his operation on his groin. The surgeon at that point operated on just one side in the hope that Liam's hernia problem would sort itself but that hasn't happened. Liam could have played on but in doing so you run the risk of making the injury worse. Equally we could have had Liam in for surgery before Saturday's game but we thought that the fortnight's break that we have would be the ideal time for this procedure to be carried out."
"We know that people will be worried to learn that Liam needs an operation but we don't want the alarm bells to be ringing either. I can't stress enough the fact that this isn't a serious problem. The surgeon that he will be seeing, a guy by the name of Dominique Byrne , is the best in this field and routinely performs double hernia operations which are more complicated that Liam's operation. We are lucky too that Liam will work closely with physio Kenny Crichton. Kenny has had two players in the past out with double hernias and back in 4-5 weeks. With the break in fixtures, therefore, we are confident that Liam will miss no more than 3-4 games."
"Although Liam has been scoring and setting up goals in recent weeks I've been aware that in the last few weeks that he hasn't been playing with the same freedom of movement and that's something that he really needs. This is bad news in the short term, because obviously he is a player that we will miss, but good news in the long term as he will be back stronger than he is right now. Liam himself is convinced that there are still 20+ goals in him this season and I have no reason at all to doubt him."
"In the meantime we are fortunate to have a player of the quality of Stevie Lovell available to us. Stevie is getting fitter and sharper all the time and should be at, or very close to, full match fitness by the time we play Inverness on November 28th."
