Since I spoke last I have had my stitches out and I am now walking without the aid of my crutches although I do still have to wear my brace for another 6 weeks to help my medial ligament to heal. It is frustrating not being able to train normally but I have found other ways to keep ticking over, mainly upper body weights and some core work I am sure this will keep progressing as the weeks go on. The muscles in my legs have completely disappeared in only 4 weeks but I have an amazing little gadget called a compex machine that is helping me to build them back up. The machine basically sends electrical impulses to the muscles and with that help to get your muscles back while an athlete is unable to work them functionally. It’s my best mate at the moment I am carrying it around with me constantly.

While I haven’t been playing I have tried to keep in touch with football through the media and on bank holiday Monday the girls played Chelsea in their first womens super league game it was shown live on ESPN and I was lucky to have been asked to do the punditry along with Faye white. The day before all the other super league teams played and there were 14 goals and 3 sendings off, I think the crew at ESPN were worried that our game against Chelsea wouldn’t be as entertaining. This wasn’t to be, the game ended 3-1 unfortunately it was to Chelsea but I think we deserved at least a draw from the game. The team can take lots of positives from it and the lessons I think we need to learn is to be more clinical in front of goal I am sure there will be lots of shooting practices in training this week. We now have a 2 week break due to FA cup and Arsenal being in the champions league but our next home game is Everton on the 29^th April please come and support it s at the Keepmoat 2pm kick off. Bring your bells!!!

Our FA cup game against Barnet was away and they play at their men’s ground so the pitch was perfect, along with this the sun was shining and as our manager said, “it’s the perfect day for football”. The game kicked off and within ten minutes we were a goal down, the goal scorer being an ex Doncaster player (always tends to happen) I managed to grab the equalizer after 25minutes, not a bad effort even if I do say so myself. Then on 30 minutes my luck changed! I went to block a ball down the line and as I landed I twisted my right knee, I knew straight away that it was something serious, I dislocated my ankle some ten years previous and it was a similar feeling. I was stretched off and taken to hospital where they found no breaks but it was the ligaments that I was concerned with. Thankfully the girls won the game in extra time with Leandra Little scoring the winner.

The Tuesday of that week I went for an MRI scan to see what the damage was, I tried to convince myself and others that it wasn’t serious however I did fear the worst. The MRI showed that I had a grade 2 tear of my medial ligament and I had completely ruptured my ACL ligament which is the anterior crutiate ligament. I was devastated as I knew this was the end of my season and any hopes of England or the Olympics had been shattered. I also had a feeling of guilt about letting my new club down. Thankfully I went see a knee specialist the week after who analyzed my knee and operated the next day. I was pleased it was all done but at the same time apprehensive. Looking at the pictures around his surgery he had operated on Steven Gerrard, Johnny Wilkinson, Freddy flintoff and many more this put my mind at ease slightly he was obviously good!!

The surgery involved taking a graft from my left hamstring and using that in my right knee to help the ruptured crutiate ligament, so after the operation I had two peg legs thankfully the left one is getting better so im hobbling around a bit more now. The part of the rehab that I am up to at the moment is resting, icing and compressing my leg along with that straightening it and trying to contract my quad. Some people have asked me is this the end and I have actually read reports were they have said this is the case, but I can guarantee I will do everything in my power to get back fitter and stronger than ever I am a hardworking, motivated positive person and this will get me through it. Doncaster Belles and everyone associated with the club have been amazing and I will be back for them next season hopefully helping them get to where they belong and that’s winning. This season I will have to put up with watching and supporting the girls and try to get involved in whatever capacity I am needed in. I will keep you updated with my progress

Sorry I haven’t written a blog in a while due to it being so long I have lots to tell you, I now have a new club Doncaster Rovers Belles. My time at Lincoln was short but I loved every minute of it and I will miss everyone associated with the club. Playing for Doncaster is a new chapter in my football career, we have already started pre season and the girls are looking good, there is only one issue I could actually be some of their mums (obviously they are very young). Over the Christmas period I did some work for the club, the most memorable being turning the Christmas lights on in Bawtry with big red Father Christmas hats on (not the coolest fashion accessory I have to say). Then a few of us went to the local children’s hospital to give out presents and just to chat to the young people who unfortunately had to be in over Christmas. This visit just put everything into perspective for me and re emphasised what the festive period is all about.

I have to admit I do love Christmas it’s a time for me to spend with my family and just relax for a few weeks. My niece who is only 4 makes this time very special she is so excited by everything, I bought her some really trendy clothes form Zara (or so I thought) and after she opened them she said, “Aunty Sue I really like the presents you bought me but I don’t like the jumper and will never wear it” so we swapped it for a pink glittery princess one instead (Aunty Sue is obviously not down with the kids) You have to admire her honesty though. We went to watch Aladdin in pantomime I am not sure who wanted to go more me or my mum, we were just glad to have a 4 year old to take. My niece loved every minute of it she sung and shouted and even had her photo taken with Aladdin at the end I didn’t have the heart to tell her Aladdin was actually Andy Mc Donald from coronation street!!

Moving on to England, I went away to La Manga in Spain last week, it was a pre season were we trained twice a day and played two games one was just between ourselves and one was against Norway which was fun mainly because we won 2-1. It was nice to catch up with all the girls and to see a bit of sunshine. I have to say joke of the camp was if you say gullible really slowly it sounds like oranges…Think about it!!!

Sorry I haven’t been in touch for a while, but since the season finished most of us have been busy with different things, I have been doing some appearances in schools and clubs talking about my career as a footballer and how important it is to keep fit and healthy. I even went to our centre of excellence and spoke to the girls about nutrition and healthy eating and how important it was to have a snack after training like a cereal bar, milkshake etc, when I asked who had snacks most of the girls raised their hands which was pleasing but then said it was to put them on for the Mac Donald’s on the way home (think I have a little bit of work to do there) I have also done a little bit of TV work hopefully most of you watched the continental cup final which was Arsenal against Birmingham, Arsenal were worthy winners and without a doubt they have been the best team that we played last season. My other TV work is a programme called, “world have your say” were people from around the world can call, email and Skype in and give their views on different topics in men’s football at that time. It is good for me as it makes me research the game in more depth and find out how football is across the world, my research obviously hasn’t been the best as when I was talking about Spain and how dominate they are in the game I mentioned some players the best one being Messi (for those as daft as me he plays in Spain but his country is Argentina) Hopefully they will ask me back!!!

Now to the interesting part our end of season night out. It was quite a sophisticated affair (well at the start of the night) We met in a nice bar before walking to a lovely restaurant in the centre of Lincoln, everyone attended and after our meal the awards were presented. Sophie Bradley won players player of the year, Leandra little won managers player of the year and the best prize went to Jess Clarke who won wolly of the year, this was during Rods team talk when he said “remi anchoring” and Jess thought we had signed a new player called Corrine, and turned to me and said, “who’s Corrine” brilliant!! All the awards were well and truly deserved, it has been a good season for us but we know there is much more to come and this is just a building block, we want to win things and that’s exactly what the entire club will be working towards. We are all very professional and you would never see any of the girls getting in at 5am on the sat morning after going to a strip club being the only place open that was serving alcohol not realising what bar they were in..Mentioning no names!!!!

I would also like to take this opportunityto thank Ray True who not only treated us all to a lovely meal and drinks but has supported us through the season. Without his help we wouldn’t be where we are today and hopefully we can win something for him next season to say thanks for all his support.

I will start off with our semi final match against Arsenal on Sunday. It wasn’t exactly the draw that we wanted but in a semi final you are always going to have to play a high-quality team. As a team we trained really hard that week and worked on ways to beat Arsenal and in the past our downfall has been belief not necessarily our ability, so we worked on confidence and believing we were good enough to beat them. The first half we spent most of our time defending and went in at half time 2-0 down however the second half was different story we went for it and caused Arsenal some problems especially when Remi Allen scored a screamer to make it 2-1 we created some chances and were pushing for the equaliser that was when Arsenal hit us on the break and scored their third. The difference between the two teams was Arsenal were very clinical in front of goal but we can take a lot away from this game the fact that we matched them and could have got something from the game considering we only had 2 fit substitutes  , we all can’t wait for next season to start already. I mentioned in my earlier blog that Jody Taylor on loan from Birmingham was asked to go back to them a couple of weeks ago this was a big loss to us.  The other semi final was Everton against Birmingham; Birmingham won 2-1 and guess who scored the winner?? Jody!! So the final is Arsenal against Birmingham at Burton Albion Sunday 25^th September live on ESPN and although I wish I was playing in the game I will still be involved doing the punditry so please tune in and try not to rip my outfit as my manager Rod does every time.

My little niece started school last week, I am very biased but she is really intelligent for a four year old she can count up to 20 in English and Spanish she knows all the dinosaurs and has a vast vocabulary probably some words she shouldn’t know ( she definitely gets her brains from her Auntie Sue). We went to meet her from school and I asked how do you like school? Her reply was superb, “It’s ok Aunty Sue but I don’t think I want to go there every day” If only!!

It has been an eventful week this week, my best friend left for pastures new and decided to go to Australia for a year, it’s a really brave thing for him to do and I am sure he will be very successful over there and one plus to him leaving is I have a nice holiday destination. Although I will miss him loads I wish him all the best!!