By Justin Chadwick
August 27th 2008 @ 1:28am
Shepherd off crutches but still frustrated
Wallaby Cameron Shepherd has been a frustrated man for the past seven weeks. Shepherd’s hopes of cementing his place as Australia’s rugby fullback came to a screeching halt on July 6 when he suffered a horrific leg break in the Wallabies’ 40-10 romp over France.
Confined to crutches for the next six weeks, Shepherd realised he could no longer take the simple things in life for granted.
“The six weeks on crutches just felt like an eternity,” Shepherd said.
“I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t carry anything and life got a bit grim, but I’m out of that now, walking around and definitely looking forward to seeing a bit of improvement.
“At the moment I’m not pushing myself, the plan would be to come back for Super 14 next year and be fit and healthy by the time that comes around.”
Watching on as his fellow Wallabies make their charge towards Tri-Nations success has been a bittersweet experience for Shepherd, who is still confined to a moon boot.
“That’s probably the hardest thing,” he said.
“It’s so nerve-racking because I know how important these games are and I look back and think ‘God, I wish I could be out there and playing with them’.
“I’m just so proud they’re doing so well and so proud Robbie’s been able to bring them together and turn Australian rugby from being so nervous and worried about the way we were playing into just passionate, carefree players.
“It’s really great to see.”
The 24-year-old isn’t the only one at the Force cut down by injury.
Utility back Scott Staniforth (knee), Sam Wykes (shoulder) and Caleb Brown (hamstring) have all been forced home from the Force’s development tour of the UK.
Staniforth went under the surgeon’s knife yesterday but was confident he could resume running in four to five weeks.
But with this being the third operation on his troublesome left knee in the past 12 months, Staniforth, who wanted to use the UK tour to play himself back into Wallabies contention, said he would be taking no risks with his comeback plan this time around.
“If it was the first time I had done it I would have tried to get back for the Wallaby tour, which is only five, six weeks away, but I’m not going to try to rush it for that,” Staniforth said.
“I’m probably just going to take it a bit slower this time.
“Last time I had the operation (during the Super 14 season) I tried to really rush back and get back into playing football. This time I’m just gong to take it slowly and try to get it right for next year.”
Meanwhile, Western Force have struck a three-year sponsorship deal with Volvo worth more than $1 million dollars.
Volvo will become the Force’s sleeve sponsor, replacing collapsed company Firepower, which still owes thousands of dollars to several Force stars.
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