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Clyde glad to run with Brumbies after so long
Mudskipper: Its just a reminder of what all these players risk every time we see and enjoy them taking the field. Best of luck to Clyde...
BY PETER FITZGERALDRUGBY UNION
20/11/2008 1:06:00 PM
Clyde Rathbone almost forgets what it feels like to wear an ACT Brumbies jersey under match conditions.
Not since March 2007 has the 27-year-old played a game of Super 14 rugby, sidelined by a series of knee injuries for the second half of that season and the entire 2008 campaign.
But the winger will get his first workout with his ACT teammates tomorrow after coach Andy Friend yesterday named him in a Brumbies team to play the Australian Sevens team.
ttp://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/sport/rugby-union/clyde-glad-to-run-with-brumbies-after-so-long/1365722.aspx
It's been a long road back for Rathbone. First a corked thigh and then multiple knee injuries, which eventually required surgery, kept the former South African out of the game for the best part of 15 months.
He returned to play nine games for Easts in the Sydney club rugby competition from June this year.
And tomorrow he'll again don his beloved Brumbies jersey, even if it is only for a pre-season hit-out of Sevens rugby.
''It's been a while, hasn't it?'' Rathbone said yesterday.
''The knee is as good as it's going to get so I have no issues with that at all. It was definitely a mental test when I came back and played for Easts in the middle of the year because we didn't know how it would hold up but the physios and doctors monitored it and all was fine.''
Rathbone has been on a modified training schedule during the first month of Brumbies pre-season.
He has spent three days a week doing proper skills sessions with his teammates and two days doing off-field training such as bike rides and gym sessions.
He believed a hit-out against the Sevens squad tomorrow would prove the ideal test to see how both he and his knee were faring.
''The Sevens will provide us all with a chance to focus on a lot of the training blocks we have been doing because it will be high tempo and require use of a lot of energy, which is what we've been doing,'' Rathbone said.
''I'm feeling fit. It's been a big couple of weeks of training and I'm probably on schedule to where I wanted to be a month into the pre-season block.''