The sight of Owen Odigie on the Hoop City Geelong United Supercats bench during Saturday night’s win over Frankston was welcomed by all, not the least by the man himself after a tough four weeks since suffering a season-ending injury.
The 30-year-old has been restricted in his movement since undergoing surgery on a quadriceps injury suffered in the opening stages of the second half of the Round 1 meeting with Kilsyth on April 1.
“I tore my quad tendon off the patella,” Odigie said.
“So, with that, if you don’t operate quickly, the quad keeps retracting, and it’s harder to pull it back into position and reattach it.
“I saw the surgeon on Wednesday (April 5), and he had me in the day after.
“It was very quick.”
LIFELINE ROUND – HOW CAN YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Despite the seriousness of the injury, which will see Odigie in a brace for another month, he will regain full quad function, with recovery to take 6-9 months.
Once the brace comes off, Odigie hopes to be able to bend his knee 90 degrees, which will open the door for rehab to start.
That leaves the door open for a return to basketball in 2024.
“I definitely do (want to play again),” Odigie said. “I’ll see how this recovers.
“I don’t want to stop playing on that … that would be pretty rough to be honest.
“I wouldn’t mind giving it one more go.”
Odigie concedes it’s been tough watching from afar as Geelong United lost the following three games after the season-opening loss to the Cobras.
“It’s been pretty rough, especially the first couple of weeks after surgery,” he said.
“I couldn’t really do much but watch TV and watch the games.
“It was hard seeing the boys struggle a little bit, knowing I couldn’t help out.”
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