African Adventure

As I mentioned on March 1st, I have been managing James' ankle injury. James returned to filming on 1st April and I followed him to Capetown a few days later, having finished Dean Ashton's work in Portugal.

My role in South Africa was to look at the situation James finds himself on set and to provide a programme of exercises that can be done to maintain and further improve his conditioning.

James and I stayed in a beautiful residence in the shadow of Table Mountain, the balconies and gardens provided an ideal and tranquil location for our rehabilitation work.

Filming requires early starts, we were on the road to our location by 6:30am and didn't arrive back till 8pm. It was a fascinating experience to see the filming of this TV series in such remote locations. The crew were excellent and very receptive to mine and James's needs to work whenever an opportunity arose.

Our second day included moving to a new location ,and would involve a lot more action scenes for James, this gave me an opportunity to liaise with the stunt coordinator. We planned the scenes in order to provide minimal risk to James!

Our final day together was a rest day from filming , but this gave us an opportunity to do an extensive session at the house - again, under the breathtaking back drop.

The whole trip was a fascinating insight into a completely different world for me, and I would relish the opportunity to do it again !

Dean Ashton

As most football fans are aware, Dean began this season on fire! He scored 2 goals in 10 minutes on the opening day of the 2008/09 season against Wigan. However, Dean was substituted by mistake when the medical team felt he had a calf strain. This turned out to be nothing more than cramp and the decision to substitute him, in front of Fabio Cappello, meant that Dean missed out on an England call up for the friendly against the Czech Republic.

Dean then suffered a problem during training at West Ham with his left ankle. His ankle suddenly became painful and blocked. Mr Calder, the ankle specialist saw Dean that day and felt it was due to a loose body that was in the joint.

Dean required keyhole surgery on Sept 30th 2008 which was performed by Mr Calder to remove this fragment and at the same time some scar tissue was removed.

Dean progressed well, however, in December he suffered sharp pain in the same ankle while running on the AlterG at Premier Physiotherapy Centre. Unfortunately this pain was caused by another bony prominence which was pinching a tendon when Dean pointed his toes.

World renowned ankle specialist Niek van Dyke, who operated on Christiano Ronaldo last summer, flew to London at Mr Calder's request to operate on Dean. Dean is now in the full swing of rehab and progressing well.

A Busy Period

James Purefoy has injured his left ankle filming his TV series ' The Philanthropist' in Prague.

James Calder (Foot & Ankle Surgeon) has performed an operation to stabilise the ' Syndesmosis' this is the joint formed by the malleoloii of the Tibia and Fibula and the Talus bone.

I have visited James Purefoy at his home to assist him with his early treatment; he is using a 'Gameready' icing unit to assist with his post-op swelling.

He must spend 2 weeks Non Weight Bearing, then 2 weeks Partial Weight Bearing, and can them mobilise Full Weight Bearing from then on.

James must resume filming in South Africa in 6 weeks and John Green will be accompanying him for the initial period.

Dean Ashton is now 3 weeks since his posterior ankle arthroscopy with James Calder and Niek Van Dyke to remove a bony prominence from the inside of his ankle.

Dean has now begun his rehab in earnest and will be fit for pre-season, we will be videoing Dean’s work at various stages and this will be posted on our site!

THEONEBOX ran again Friday at Wolverhampton at 7:50pm finishing out of the top 3 unfortunately.