ACFC TV - Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi

Words: ACFC Media

Tuesday 31 January 2017

AUCKLAND – Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi has completed the next step on his road back to full fitness – surgery on the knee injury he sustained just before last year’s FIFA Club World Cup.

“I had surgery a couple of weeks ago on the 11th of January and since then I’ve been doing recovery which means not doing much to be fair – just staying off it as much as possible,” Hudson-Wihongo told ACFC TV.

The Navy Blues midfielder admits it’s been a frustrating time to be on the sidelines and is keen to tackle the next stages of his recovery plan.

“You’re always tempted to just go down the park and have a kick around especially when you’re not training. or you turn up to training and you can see everyone playing. You always get that feeling that you want to be out there playing but obviously you can’t.”

“I get on the bike hopefully at the end of the week so I’m hoping to be able to push myself on the bike and maintain a level of fitness that is acceptable. 

“As well as the bike I’ll slowly be doing exercises to build the muscles around my leg I’m sure [club physio Matt Payne] and the trainer I’m working with will discuss what those exercises are but at the moment I’m doing simple exercise like contracting the muscles in my quad and raising my leg.” 

“I’ve seen Payney a few times and he’s pretty happy how it’s going at the moment and I see the surgeon again on Thursday so hopefully he says the same thing.”

When speaking just days after suffering the injury in a training ground fall, Hudson-Wihongi had set his sights on returning to the game in time to push for regain his place in the New Zealand squad heading to the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. He has recalibrated his sights now mindful of the risk in returning too early.

 “If I’m being optimistic it would be the FIFA Confederations Cup but realistically it would be the start of the next Stirling Sports Premiership season to make sure I don’t reinjure because I think there’s a big chance of reinjuring it if I push too hard to get back for the Confederations Cup. Obviously I will be pushing but not to the point where I reinjure it.

“The Intercontinental Playoff would be the biggest opportunity I have internationally to get back. I’d have a lot more games under my belt and be fully fit.”

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