On The Treatment Table: Jade Widdowson (Chichester City, knee injury)

The Locker Room’s On The Treatment Table slot features Jade Widdowson, 21, centre midfielder and captain of Chichester City, who has also represented Sussex and the England Beach Soccer team. Her injury came in the third game of the 2013 season, a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge after several heavy tackles leaving her feeling her left knee rip. She was diagnosed with a bucket tear to her femur cartilage, a missing section of cartilage and three major meniscus tears, undergoing surgery in December and unable to walk for two months. Four days earlier her right leg had given way through overcompensating, and scans revealed a further bucket tear and four meniscus tears, requiring a second operation in March and two more in May and June. Widdowson praises Chichester and the University of Chichester but found NHS rehabilitation, limited to four-week programmes, insufficient for a return to sport.