Mystery Injury: Black out for months

By Dave Picken - February 25 2004
Mystery Injury: Black out for months
Steve's Try
Steve Black may not play again until 2005 because of a serious knee ligament injury. Its a dreadful blow to a player who had just returned to the game after a severe ankle injury suffered while playing for Blaydon. But Blackie's latest injury is a bit of a mystery.

He has badly damaged the cruciate ligament in his right knee and will have a scan on Friday to discover just how bad it is.

It happened in the game against Horden wherer Steve scored the first try. Although he had to leave the field with ten minutes to go it was because he was still suffering from a virus and felt - and looked - decidedly ill.

He drove home to Tyneside and it was only that night that his knee swelled up.

He says: "I've gone back through the game and I can't work out when I did it. There was a maul when I was hit on the side of the leg but I played a lot of rugby after that. The surgeon says the only possibility is that I was running in straight lines - if I'd tried to jink the knee would have collapsed."

At 22 Steve still has time on his side and he definitely is due more luck. He has quickly become one of the most effective and popular players in the team, and everyone will be wishing him a speedy recovery. We will also have our fingers crossed that the surgeon can get him back for the start of next season.