Drury boosted by City revival

Norwich's luckless defender Adam Drury admitted today City's recent Championship revival was a major boost on his long road to recovery.

The 29-year-old has undergone successful knee ligament surgery on the injury suffered during Bristol City's thumping 3-1 Carrow Road win in October.

Drury was desperate for an injury-free run this campaign after a season blighted by ankle and dental problems - but the reliable full back remains upbeat following his latest set back.

“It's coming along well,” he said. “Obviously I know it's going to be a long-term thing and when you first hear it, it's very disappointing. The physio team have worked brilliantly with me and kept me ticking along. They haven't let me get my head down. It's part of the game and you have to get on with it.

“Touch wood, I've been quite lucky with injuries. This is the first thing I've done seriously. But, like I said, it's one of those things and you've got to get on with it. You have your good days and your bad days but every day is getting closer to playing again.”

Drury - still on crutches following the operation six weeks ago - refuses to set any timetable on his recovery.

“You don't want to set dates or anything like that,” he said. “Just every day that goes by is a day closer to being back training and playing. Looking out there at the minute and training looks fun and the lads look like they're enjoying themselves. So I just want to be back as quickly as I can.

“Any injury is disappointing, but when you know it's not just a couple of weeks or a month it's hard to take. But the lads have done brilliantly so far and I hope they keep it going. They've got us out of trouble and hopefully they can keep climbing the table.”

The club stalwart praised City phyiso Neal Reynolds and his staff after initially being diagnosed with a simple calf strain.

“I tried to get up and play on with it and went up for a header and realised something serious was wrong,” said Drury. “I had a scan on it afterwards and it showed a bit of a calf strain on it. But, luckily, Neal didn't agree with that and took me to see a specialist, and if it hadn't been for that we probably would have been treating it as a calf strain for a while and done more serious damage, so a big thank you to Neal for checking it out.”

Reynolds opted for a second opinion after Drury's initial scans proved inconclusive.

“I must admit we looked at it and it completely surprised me,” he said. “I said to him, 'I can't believe that's all you've got,' looking at how his knee looked. Everyone goes on about MRI scans, but you can't just go on what a scan tells you - you have to go on what the knee looks like. We treated it very gently and hadn't done much with it and about a week later I still wasn't happy with it so we went to speak to a surgeon and from there the rest is history. He agreed with me, we disagreed with the MRI scan and he had surgery that day.”

Reynolds insists Drury is making good progress on his painstaking road to recovery.

“He's coming along on course really,” he said. “We've set goals and set times that we're going to work on. His first goal is six weeks, which comes up this Thursday, from the time of the operation. From that point of view he's reached every goal.

“He will then come out of the brace that he's in at the moment, off the crutches, and then start to walk around without crutches. From then on it's getting going again. The first six weeks are the hardest. He's definitely on course.”