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Derby Down Under Part 2: Where's Ruben?... Here he is!!
Derby Down Under Part 2: Where's Ruben?... Here he is!!
Saturday, 26th Sep 2009 16:55 by Daniel J Sewart

It seems my explosive article on the absence of Ruben Zadkovich from the Rams caused the media to instantly seek the lad out. Only hours after completing the article I received a Google news alert that the “Illawarra Mercury” had solved the mystery.

In what is an amazing revelation and one that defused a potential international incident, it seems Ruben is back in Australia receiving treatment for a long term injury.

Having been working on this article for weeks I was amazed to see the immediate results that my search for the truth unearthed.

The Mercury's gun reporter Joel Ritchie published this report on the missing midfielder:

Just over a year ago, Ruben Zadkovich felt like he was on top of the football world. Yesterday, he was on a Wollongong physiotherapist's table, dreaming of returning to the field.

The Bulli junior is nearing his comeback after a complicated groin injury ruined his first season with English Championship outfit Derby County.

Zadkovich returned home in April to treat the ailment, which flared while representing Australia at the Beijing Olympic Games in August last year.

That was the setting of the greatest moment of the 23-year-old's career, as he scored the 'Olyroos' only goal of the campaign. That strike came just weeks after Zadkovich's Socceroos debut.

After those heady highs, the ensuing 13 months have been packed with surgery, rehab, diagnosis, treatment, aborted comebacks and most frustratingly, precious little football.

Zadkovich missed the last game in Beijing and made only a handful of starts for the Rams after being diagnosed with an adductor strain - an injury he expected would take six weeks to heal.

Two operations and two short-lived comebacks later, Zadkovich is at the tail end of six months of treatment - including three hours a day of dry needling and agonising deep tissue massage, five times a week.

"I pretty much live here, I hate it. I just want to play, six weeks has turned into a year. Ten games in a year ... it's s*#t”.


"If you asked me during the Olympics how things were going, I would have said it's all looking good, it's a slippery slope."

Zadkovich returns to the UK next Wednesday and has set himself a goal of playing by Christmas. With his two-year Derby deal expiring in June - and the Rams already deep into this season's campaign - that would leave the midfielder-cum-right back a tiny window to impress Rams boss Nigel Clough.

Clough has not seen Zadkovich play in the flesh, as he took over from Paul Jewell in January - by that stage the former Sydney FC and Notts County player was already on the shelf.

"I need to be playing by then, if it's not right by Christmas, I will play even if it's at 90 per cent because I need to, it's a race against time".

"When you're playing there's no better place in the world, nothing better. When you're not, there's nothing worse - you miss your family and friends and the best country in the world and you're watching your career slide away."

Naturally, Zadkovich was full of thanks for the physios - Daniel Lawson and Michael Baines - who have overseen his recovery.

"They have been there for me, I have to put in three hours a day, which means they have to as well,".

Well there you have it.

Mystery solved and a missing player found by the investigative prowess of the Illawarra Mercury and their scribe Mr Ritchie.

The only question remaining is why he is shunned by the Rams in the media and deemed only worthy of fleeting mentions and also why it seems medical treatment in Wollongong is preferred than that available to the Rams.

Also why is it that a regional Australian paper can manage a feature article on Zadky (i hope he doesn't mind me calling him that... it's either that or Ruby) yet very little has been written in Derby.

Mystery? Not anymore.

Conspiracy? Probably not.

Does anyone care about it as much as me? Unlikely.

Now all that remains is for Nigel to issue the boy with a squad number upon his return, if for no other reason than to encourage and support him in his recovery.

Also such an act would mean I can get my new shirt numbered without having to ask the shop to just put a question mark on it for the time being.

Good luck Ruben!!

Thanks to Joel Ritchie and the Illawarra Mercury for the use of their story and the fabulous picture of a Physio admiring Rubens upper thigh.

Follow the link to see the article as published on their website:

illawarramercury.com.au.

 

Photo: Action Images



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