Mikey Drennan

[villabear]

Modern football isn't all riches and glamour as this ex Villan story shows.  Good luck to him.

http://www.the42.ie/mikey-drennan-football-depression-interview-3130381-Dec2016/?utm_source=twitter_self

Mods, feel free to move if appropriate.

[Diablo]

Good article. Hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

[KevinGage]

Sounds like our medical team had a 'mare.

Jebus, did anything function under Lerner at all.

[Hoppo]

So after reading that.. how can you blame Lerner?

[brian green]

With every heartfelt sympathy for the lad and wishes for a full and speedy recovery football and sport generally is an environment of unfulfilled hopes and dreams.  Depression lurks in the shadows of "failure".

[AV82EC]

So after reading that.. how can you blame Lerner?

It is a bit 2+2=5 but i can't say it surprises me that the utter incompetence Lerner and his team showed in running the club meant our star youth system striker got bad medical suppprt just when he needed it most.

[KevinGage]

So after reading that.. how can you blame Lerner?

Maybe you'd trouble yourself to read it again.

The bit where he's told by one medic to leave a broken foot to heal by itself. Only for another member of the medical staff to say that was a terrible idea when he came back after the summer.

The left arm not knowing what the right arm is doing springs to mind.

Injuries happen in contact sport. It's a fact of life, and when it occurs all you can do is ensure the players get the best treatment possible. That didn't happen with this lad. Vlaar also made noises about the rehabilitation at the club not being up to snuff and how it contributed to his time out being longer than it should have been. 

If you look at the sheer volume of long term injuries we've had over the past five years, it's not unreasonable to ask what -if anything- we could have been done differently to either speed up recovery or not leave a player susceptible to injury in the first place.

Or maybe we have just been really really unfortunate.

[darren woolley]

I wish him well in whatever he does in life.

[brian green]

You could add Libor Kozak to that list KG.  He had to have his leg rebroken.  No blame intended towards his doctors or surgeons but nevertheless an example of treatment that did not exactly go according to plan.

[eamonn]

I'm from the same town, went to the same school (quite a few years older obviously) and my brother is an acquaintance of his brother.

I felt he was starting to live out my dream as a kid, to sign for the Villa as a teenager and have a glorious career with the first passion I ever had. A shame it didn't work out for him, in professional football generally, not just at Villa, but great to see he has perspective on things and is feeling better in himself now.

[KevinGage]

Aye.

It's a hard one to call, as -if you take the Amavi injury- I'm not sure there is a whole pile the club could have done to prevent it.

But quite often the 'break' when it comes comes is the final act; a result of a weakness that hasn't been addressed (or possibly even been exacerbated) by training and recovery between games.