United physiotherapist Neil Dalton spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria at length on Tuesday evening, the second part of that interview which is reproduced here, Dalton again talking about Joe Garner's injury and his own time at the club :
" Southend will be the 500th league game for me, I think I did 500 games last season. Either the last game of the season, or a couple of games before the end of the season I think that I hit 500, I'm on about 570-odd in total at the minute, so it's my 500th league game as first team physiotherapist for the football club. Even going back to when I was 19 years old I would never have thought that in a month of Sundays I would be here this long. It did take me about four or five years to get over not playing and take that job as a physiotherapist but now I wouldn't change it for the world to be honest.
" It's absolutely normal at this present time to have a bit of swelling, he (Joe Garner) has actually got a bit more swelling than he would have just a cruciate injury, as he had a wee bit of cartilage taken out at the time. So roughly we are talking on around and about six weeks before the swelling has subsided to where we can get some proper real activities to do. That swelling can last up to three or four months really, a little bit of fluid now and then, it shows that you have exercised too hard or that there isn't enough exercise being done.
" We've actually looked into cryotherapy last year when Neil McDonald was here, we looked into going to a place called Wexford in Ireland who have just built the centre themselves. He was telling me that Bolton used it on piece in Austria or somewhere like that I think. Apparently you have got to go in in clogs because of the wood, you can't stick to the floor and you have got to keep on the move, and you go in for 30 second blasts.
" I think the advantage is that it is just like what they used to do in the olden days where they did altitude training. So you are training the body to work when there is less oxygen moving around the body. Possibly that sort of thing might help Joe, I think that the fright might do him just the same amount of good as the coldness.
" Players never think about the crowds to be honest, they appreciate crowds being there but they never ever talk about how little or how many were there. It doesn't really matter to players, they are professional footballers, I think that it is more to do with the administration side and the amount of money they can get in. You've got this balance of how much you spend, how much you take in and that sort of thing, so they look at that but nothing to do with the players.
" He (Simon Hackney) is the nicest man in the world, he will do anything and everything for you. I've never heard him say a bad word about anybody, anything or any person. Even when we are watching television and we'll make comments about somebody on SKY Sports News, and he'll say that they're not that bad. That's just the way he is, he is a lovely, lovely lad. "
" He has got a ruthless streak, if you see him on the pitch now, you'll see him now, he's starting to actually foul a few people. I think he's had one yellow card this season but he gets away with that off the referees as well because he is so nice to them. He's probably so polite and apologises to them as he does it.
" Generally I work a six day week, unless like this weekend we are in on Sunday, so it's a seven day week. We are in on a morning, I have a meeting with the gaffer around about 8.30am, the players are in from anything from 9.15am until about 10am if they are training. I've got treatments first then strappings, players go out and train, I'll go and rehabilitate the players.
" The fit ones come back in and generally need some more pampering or something else done. I might have a bite to eat, depending on what stage people are at rehabilitations. They could go out for afternoon sessions, be it swimming or whatever they may do. Then it is paperwork and home at around and about, anything from 4.30pm to after 5pm on a general day. Then you have got your Tuesday night games though, your Friday nights away at Leyton Orient and Gillingham the week after.
" So it varies week to week but it is very interesting. I had my second child about five or six weeks ago, a little boy that is keeping us up at nights at present. It's quite difficult but the good thing is that in the summer, providing I can work injuries or I don't have any injuries, I get roughly about seven weeks off. It makes up for it in the summertime, we work it, my wife is used to it now, we have been together for many years. She is understanding and she does do most of the night feeds at present, infact all of the night feeds at present.
" The higher we get up in the league, the more surgeons we will go to. I think earlier on, this year was it, or was it last year, Paul Thirlwell we thought may have had a hernia problem and we were even considering flying him out to Germany. With Joe Garner, Fred (Story) offered to pay for him to go to and see Richard Steadman in Colorado, in Vale.
" When I spoke to Dave Fevre about that, who is the Blackburn physiotherapist, he was telling me that it was a 35 hour journey or something like that. So the higher you go up in the league the more you go about the country, the World, Europe. You just have to get used to it really, I think that I have done it that long now that I'm completely used to it and you take it all in your stride. "
" Joe will be doing bits and bobs of his rehabilitation at Blackburn, Joe lives about two minutes from Blackburn's training ground. He knows the four or five Blackburn physiotherapists that are there. It is just purely for handiness for him, but also I have seen their facilities, they are absolutely, well I was going to say second to none, but all the top Premiership clubs, Manchester United and all those teams.
" They have all got fantastic facilities now, their own swimming pools, their own sand pits to train in. They have absolutely everything compared to my knocked out squash courts that used to be under the Sporting Inn. Our facilities are excellent for where we are at in our league, but their facilities are much better. So we'll do to and fro and just share the load as well. Basically the rehabilitation is all the same as what I do, it's just that their facilities are that much better.
" I spoke to Dave on Saturday night, he was telling me that they had just flown back from Fulham or somewhere. He was telling me that the M6 was closed at this junction, and as it was we were actually going through Garstang at the present time on the coach. So I speak to him quite regularly and he has offered me to go down just whenever I want really to look at their facilities and see what they do.
" They will do far in advance things to what we do, for example blood tests and that sort of thing, and the way that they monitor and screen players. So that will be interesting and fantastic for me to see. I'm old enough now and I realise that it is what is best for Joe. At the end of the day Joe is hot property so to speak, who can make our football club a heck of a lot of money. So anything that helps Joe to get back to that level he was, and even more so when he is fit, it's all for the good of the club.
" He's OK, he found it difficult at the start, people have got to remember that he is a tough cookie on the pitch and he is a bit of a hard fella, but he is still only 19 years old. You've got to think that he had had a fantastic first season with us, there was this talk, well there wasn't talk, that we turned down a £1 million offer from a certain Championship club in the transfer window.
" Joe knows all about this, he was told, his agent was told, then all of a sudden so many weeks later he has got this injury that could threaten his career. Also though it is going to keep him out for anything from six, seven, up to nine months really. It hit him quite hard, he stayed away, on his own wishes that he stayed away for a few days and got his head sorted and spent some time at Blackburn after the operation. Just so that he was ready to come back, but I have seen him this week and he is ready and he is fighting and he is raring to go now.
" That 12 week mark is a crucial time in the rehabilitation and it can be when he is spending one-to-one physiotherapy with me. Which will be so boring for him, you have got to condition your mind, but again, with us using the Blackburn facilities there are going to be guys that he has known as well as myself. They have squads of about 50 or 60 including the academy players, so there are going to be two or three of their injured players in to help him along and to push him along. That working as a group can often spur you on and make it so much easier in the long recovery to fitness. "