Melbourne Heart goalkeeper Clint Bolton feared being forced into retirement as the A-League season loomed.
Instead, the 36-year-old will play his 446th national soccer league match on Sunday - with only three players having played more top-flight club games in Australia.
Bolton trails just National Soccer League legends Alex Tobin, Paul Trimboli and Damian Mori on the all-time list.
But he admits making it to Sunday's clash with Wellington Phoenix in Morwell was far from his mind as he battled a chronic groin problem in the preseason.
All he thought about was would he play at all.
"To be honest, I didn't really know if I could get to this point right now where I am," he said.
"Pre-season it was a very stop-start affair with my injury. I'd come back from my injury and I'd feel good, the next week I would pull up sore again and it was back to square one.
"At that point I had a good discussion with the coaches what my options were.
"Possible surgery, all these things, but the bottom line was I don't think I could go in for surgery at this stage of my career and come back from it.
"We persisted in what we were doing and finally it turned around. But there were plenty of moments along the way I just kept questioning whether I should be going on or not."
Careful management by the club of both the injury and Bolton's training has brought him back from the brink.
He trains less.
Each session is followed by immersing himself in a wheelie bin of ice water.
Great in summer, not so great on chilly Melbourne mornings far removed from days growing up in sunny Bundaberg in Queensland, or winning the NSL grand final with Brisbane Strikers in 1997.
Bolton has gone on to win four championships - two in the NSL and two with Sydney FC before joining the Heart.
He jokes his milestone just shows he is old, that each game he plays brings him closer to his last.
Yet battle-hardened and battered, he remains one of the A-League's best goalkeepers.
Bolton was Heart's player of the year in their debut season, and has again proved his importance this season.
His return coincided with the Heart going on a six-match unbeaten streak, only broken by a loss to Central Coast last weekend.
"I really enjoy the battle still, and it's good to see the progression the team's made," Bolton said.
"It's stunning to see in patches what we can produce in an attacking sense.
"To see it, bit by bit coming together. The coach (John van 't Schip) has had a philosophy and slowly we're starting to produce exactly what's in his head.
"For me, that's rewarding in itself."
AAP
Tags: a-league, soccer, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, australia First posted December 03, 2011 16:36:49
No comments:
Post a Comment