Shrewsbury's Shaun Whalley 'devastated' by 'freak' training ground injury amid lengthy lay-off
Aaron Wilbraham has revealed the extent of Shaun Whalley's thigh injury shocked Shrewsbury Town staff.
The 34-year-old felt a tweak in the upper leg muscle during a shooting drill in training at Sundorne Castle last week and the attacker was sent for a scan.
It was hoped he would be OK to feature at Cheltenham last Saturday, where he would have made his 250th Town appearance, but the results put paid to that as a scan revealed a tear that requires at least 12 weeks of rehabilitation.
"We were doing a shooting exercise in training we've done a million times before, everyone else got through it fine, it's just one of these you can't help," Wilbraham said.
"He didn't think it was anything serious, he felt the muscle cramp up a little bit and then obviously when we got the scan we were hoping he'd maybe alright for Cheltenham but when it came back such a severe tear we were a bit gutted for him.
"It's not a complete rupture, grade two C or something, you can get a grade three C, but it's just disappointing because he's been effective in all his games recently."
Whalley had been impressing in Steve Cotterill's midfield but now looks set to be sidelined until February at the earliest. Wilbraham added: "He's obviously disappointed, he was only saying to be a few days before how he was loving being back training after his little calf injury.
"To then get a longer-term one was gutting for Shaun, he really loves his football, so it's sad to see him out but he'll recover properly, do the rehab right and get back as strong as he can.
"He'll be gutted, with such a freak way to get it, he'll be devastated but it's part and parcel of football. Everybody has these injuries in their career and you have to come back stronger, it's the only thing you can do."
