'Heartbreaking': Popular Portsmouth man relishing second chance to shine after cruel injury
The central defender’s season was frustratingly cut short in February after six appearances
In yet another campaign devastated by squad injury, it was arguably the cruellest - and most dramatic - curtailing of a player’s season.
Thankfully Hayden Matthews is ready to announce his Pompey comeback as the friendly schedule this week kicks off, starting with Woking tonight (7pm).
Yet his highly-impressive entrance into the Blues first-team was prematurely ended in agonising circumstances approaching five months ago, when the pain-stricken 21-year-old had to be helped off the Fratton Park pitch by two medical staff.
Despite rupturing ligaments in his right ankle, requiring an operation, the Australian refused to desert his team against QPR in February, on account of the Blues had already used their allocation of substitutes.
Instead Matthews was pushed up front and encouraged to make a nuisance of himself, despite his clearly immobile state as he helped John Mousinho’s men claim a crucial 2-1 win.
Now he’s ready to resume his promising start to life at Pompey, with Woking (tonight), Farnborough (tomorrow) and Crawley (Saturday) on the friendly agenda.
‘Skip thought it was cramp. I wish it had been’
Matthews told The News: ‘It was heartbreaking to hear I was going to miss the rest of the season and the national team as well, which ended up being two matches for them.
‘At the same time, it’s about the bigger picture and it gave me a bit of time to work on my body physically. Regardless, those six games last season have given me a lot of confidence, I now know a bit more of what to expect coming into English football.
‘From the moment of the challenge against QPR, I knew my ankle was pretty much done. Straight away I could feel it, it was extremely painful to push off, physically I couldn’t move in the way that I would like to.
‘As I tackled him, his foot had hit the back of my calf and, as it happened, I planted my studs in the turf and the rest of my body then twisted over.
‘My syndesmosis was completely ruptured, as was the AITFL, which connects the tibia and fibula. My deltoid ligament was also hanging on by a thread.
‘Skip (Marlon Pack) then picked me up off the floor and said we had no subs left, so asked if I could stay on, go up front and get in the way. I think at that point he thought it was cramp - I wish it had been!
‘I stayed on, but there was no more damage, it didn’t make it any worse whatsoever. As soon as I knew we had no subs left, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind I would stay on.
‘Pretty much anyone in the team would have done the same, we have that team culture where we leave it all out there for each other, play for each other and fight for the badge.
‘But when the final whistle went, I sat straight down, took my boot off and thought I needed someone to look at my ankle - something didn’t feel right. It ended up needing an operation.’
Six successive appearances after arriving from Sydney FC
Matthews, who joined from Sydney FC in January, was handed his Pompey debut in a 1-0 home defeat to Millwall days later.
He went on to make six successive appearances, of which three were starts, including the Fratton Park clash with QPR which produced a third successive victory to lift Mousinho’s men into 17th spot.
Frustratingly, however, his season was over. Yet, having been back training since the opening day of pre-season, the centre-half is now completely free from injury.
‘Thankfully I now feel fine’
He added: ‘My first session running on pitch was the same day as Hull. I then stayed behind another week with the physios and strength and conditioning coaches to do a bit more before I went on a break.
‘From that point it was on me to do it all. I went to Spain for 4-5 days and attended the El Clasico with a mate over there, before returning to Australia to work with a strength and conditioning coach.
‘Then I came back two weeks before pre-season started to get myself right - and thankfully I now feel fine.’
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