Ankle injury ‘nightmare’ left Shrewsbury Town's Brad Walker in ‘a lonely place’

The versatile midfielder, 24, spent more than three months in the treatment room after severely damaging ankle ligaments in early December.

The impact injury occurred at the end of Steve Cotterill’s first league game in charge on December 2, against Accrington, and ruled Walker out until last Saturday’s defeat to Fleetwood.

Walker recalled a ‘lonely’ spell out of action, in part due to Covid restriction protocols, as well as regret for attempting to limp off.

“I’m delighted to be back, I’ve obviously worked really hard while out injured trying to get myself in good nick and get as fit as I could as soon as I could,” said Walker. “The injury was a bit of a nightmare to be honest, but you get these setbacks and it’s how you come back from them.

“Obviously when the gaffer came in I was delighted because he picked me in his first starting XI.

“Then I got injured and the team were doing really well, I was always going to find it hard to get back in the team.

“But I’ve just put my head down and grafted as hard as I could to get back fit as soon as I could.

“There were a few little setbacks along the way but apart from that it was all good.”

Walker added: “I shouldn’t have limped off!

“It was a bad injury, the ligaments in my ankle, I did near enough every single one of them, it was frustrating in the timing but it’s football and how you come back.

“On the impact of my foot being stuck in the ground I knew it was bad, when I walked off I felt it but I didn’t think it was too bad when I did it. I wanted to play on but I couldn’t.

“Apart from the two physios it was quite a lonely place really, with the Covid restrictions I was in before the lads who were training, it was tough but you get on with it and come out the other side.”

Walker’s return from injury came as a substitute in an unfamiliar right-back role at Montgomery Waters Meadow last weekend.

The ex-Wrexham man was then handed a full return in Tuesday’s important win at Rochdale, starting on the right of a central defensive three, highlighting his versatility.

Walker began the season in Sam Ricketts’ starting XI and was Town’s best and most consistent performer for a number of weeks.

Yet the opportunity to impress Cotterill in the early weeks of new boss’s tenure were cruelly taken away from Walker, who is one of a number of players out of contract this summer.

“The gaffer’s first impression of you when he comes in is what he’s going to go off, luckily it (the injury) was quite late in the game so he got a look at me,” he said. “But I just want to play games now to see where that takes me.

“Every chance I get now is a chance to impress the gaffer and stake my claim to get in the team and go from there.”