Broken leg 'not as bad as feared' for Joel Catesby

They're going to be seeing a lot of each other.

Good to hear it's not as bad as first thought but, like Branthwaite, it's a long time to be out when you are wanting to progress.

Stay positive.

So a week before an announcement is probably just about right.

Firstly, denial by the TV crew to reshow the foul that caused the injury. Why? This I have never ever understood. Every other event on a football field can be reanalyzed in slo-mo ad infinitum... except a broken leg.

Then denial by the club that it is anything other than a 'serious injury' when it must be patently obvious to all anywhere near it that the poor lad has broken something.

You talk about needing a scan to confirm things but they put his ankle in plaster that night or the following morning -- more than a week ago. Why can't they say "Yes, it's clear that Joel's broken his leg and may have ankle ligament damage but we won't know any more until we get him back to our specialist." Why deny us even that crumb of information?

But no, we the fans are denied such a courtesy after faithfully watching the team and supporting all the players. I just don't get it.

It will have taken a good few days for the swelling to subside and then they will have very carefully checked everything was lined up to heal correctly.

When I dislocated my ankle (and broke the fibula) aged 16, the biggest concern was actually about potential damage to the cartilage at the end of the tibia as that could have stymied continued growth of the bone.

I don't know whether the fact they apparently reset the dislocation there and then means that complication is much less likely. I had to have mine reset under general anaesthetic but at least they didn't need to pin it as they thought they might need to.

I did rewind and review the incident and I wouldn't say it was a terrible challenge, but it was desperate, clumsy, mistimed and a clear foul. The consequences were at their most extreme and, for me, not indicative of any obvious malice or elevated force, which is why reffing challenges on the consequences does my head in. The damage came because of a massive weight shift just after the studs were planted.

The dislocation was obvious because of the angle of his foot (and that was gruesome enough to send some teammates scurrying away with eyes averted, but what you can't tell is what bones might have fractured and whether they are simple or compound.

A nice clean break to the minor bone and a dislocation you can manipulate back in is probably the best that could have been hoped for.

There is still a long way to go and I doubt the doctors will really be making any serious long-term predictions until they check how things have healed about 6 weeks in.

The lad will be on tenterhooks for his own future until he finds himself playing the game without flashbacks sometime in the near future. Does he need all the details (and an awareness of the uncertainties around recovery from a serious injury) writ large and often in the media?