Patrick Bamford opens up on his injury woes | OneFootball

Patrick Bamford damaged his posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) during an U-23s fixture at Elland Road back in September, just one month after an €8m move from Middlesbrough that made him Leeds’ most expensive signing in 17 years.

Despite making just five substitute appearances prior to the injury, Leeds still find themselves fighting for promotion toward the top of the table.

The 25-year-old is back in light training and is on track to make a return for the second half of the season.

“Everyone who’s asked me that expects me to say it’s been really tough and frustrating,” Bamford told LUTV.

“Obviously it’s been frustrating that I can’t play but when it happened Rob told me as he tested it ‘you’ve snapped it. Worst case is nine months.’ In my head, I was thinking ‘this is a nightmare’.

“But when I saw the specialist and he said it’ll be four months I thought ‘thank God for that’ I was buzzing.

“As weird as it sounds to be buzzing about being out for four months, it was a weight off my shoulders.”

The former Chelsea trainee damaged his knee while going up for an aerial challenge during a training match against Bristol City’s U-23s.

“It’s getting there slowly,” he said. “It was an innocuous fall to the floor. I went up for a header and dropped and because of the force. I hit the floor and it basically snapped the ligament.

“It’s rare in football. It’s normally an injury you get when you have a car crash. It was a freak and hard to get my head around to start with.

“The whole weekend I thought it was going to need an operation and it was going to be six to nine months. I was pretty down.

“But the specialist said ‘you don’t need an op, just keep a brace on for four weeks.’”