Rovers’ matchday programme, RTID, caught up with long-term absentee defender Jamie McCombe to find out how his rehabilitation is progressing.
Jamie, where are you at the moment in terms of your rehabilitation from injury?
“My rehabilitation is going to plan with the back brace still on, which will stay on till the middle of October.
“At that point I will have a CT scan, which will indicate if the bone has healed - hopefully it will have and I can get the brace taken off.
“Following this it probably will be two months to get back match fit but then I have the battle of trying to get back in the side.”
Although as a footballer you expect to have time out injured it must still be frustrating?
“Yes, its frustrating. I have had this condition for near on two years.
“It kept flaring up and it was misdiagnosed at Huddersfield and others putting it down to sciatica.
“The fracture never showed up on the MRI scans I had in October, just after the Preston game, last season. I had two months out after that before continuing playing right up to the end of the season.
“At the end of the season we had it CT scanned, which showed the fracture in my spine, so I was put on complete rest for two months.
“When I came back, I only lasted three days before I could feel it again, which made the physio send me for a spec CT scan, where they in inject dye.
“This showed that it was active, which meant the fracture was trying to heal. The specialist then confirmed that I had to have the back shut down and put in a brace. This was to stop me bending and doing every day movements that could affect the healing process.
“It is frustrating being in a brace, especially with a three year old at home; it means I cannot do normal family stuff.
“The positive is that it is now healing and I can get back to training.
“It will be nice to be back to 100% fitness instead of playing at 70% and surviving game to game, which I have done the past few seasons.
“I kept getting patched up and sent out again, before, when I should have been getting to the bottom of the problem. Doncaster have done that [got to the root of the problem] so I should be back playing fully fit again.”
The full interview with Jamie will be in the Burnley edition of RTID, Rovers matchday programme.