Injured Adelaide United FC striker Sergio van Dijk is taking a positive approach to his recovery and is hopeful this outlook will lead him to a successful and speedy comeback.
Injured Adelaide United FC striker Sergio van Dijk is taking a positive approach to his recovery and is hopeful this outlook will lead him to a successful and speedy comeback.
Rather than focus on the negatives of being sidelined by a calf injury, a contemplative van Dijk knows it is by no means the be all and end all, and that this setback is only minor on the scale compared to the lengthy injury layoffs many players are forced to endure.
“An injury is never good for a player and at first I thought this is so bad, but I try to see things in perspective because I have team mates who have been out for six months and I-m complaining about not being there for one game,” van Dijk said.
“In saying that, I was always confident that we have a good quality squad, so I think they can still do the job.”
As a result of his physical, battering-ram style on the pitch, van Dijk is always going to cop his fair share of heavy knocks, but he is well aware it comes with the territory and one thing for certain is that this injury is not going to alter the way the Hyundai A-League-s 2010/11 Golden Boot goes about the playing the game.
“It-s always hard because I-m used to getting knocks, it-s the way I play, but this time I was a little bit unlucky and I think that-s just a part of football,” van Dijk said.
“Luckily it-s just a little tear and one to two weeks, but obviously I-m trying to push as quickly as possible, but it all depends on how I-m recovering and I want to stay positive about it and I think that will help my recovery.”
Van Dijk revealed that a knock to the calf he received from team mate Milan Susak at training a fortnight ago was the instigator of the problem and that after making it through the matches against Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Heart unscathed, it was a pass he made in last Friday night-s win over Gold Coast United that made it too sore to continue.
“During the game, I think because the other part of my calf had to compensate some of the work, it started to stiffen up. That made it harder and harder and I tried to pass the ball at around the 30 minute mark and I felt a little ping in my calf.”
Van Dijk joins Susak and Evgeniy Levchenko as other Reds who are currently on the road back from calf problems, but the United target man believes there is no common denominator in reading into why there are a number of players dealing with lower leg injuries at the same time.
“Susak got a knock in his calf…and in my case it-s a knock as well so yeah I think it-s bad luck,” van Dijk said.
“These things just happen in football and luckily we have a squad with enough quality to back it up.”
As the Reds prepare to face the Phoenix without van Dijk, the 29 year old has a firm belief his team mates can return from Auckland with three points and secure consecutive wins for the first time this season.
“In Wellington it-s always hard to have a win and they are a tough team, especially over there, but I think it-s really important because a win will bring you back up in the middle, up into the mix and it can make a massive difference in confidence as well,” van Dijk said.
The Reds will have a final training session at tomorrow morning before departing for Auckland on Thursday afternoon.
