Unfortunately... Albion striker Daryl Dike looks set for another extended period out of the side with an Achilles injury suffered in the comeback victory at Stokehttps://t.co/Xjw6dlD2cS— Express & Star (@ExpressandStar) April 16, 2023 Here's wishing him a speedy and complete recovery!
Crap. This looks terrible. I've seen 3 people suffer a full Achilles tear. In all 3 cases, out for a tough, tough whole year and you never come back the same. What a nightmare. I'm feeling for Daryl.
My guess is the trick is to take your time, rehab fully, don't rush back. Good luck (in every sense) always helps, of course. Best of luck to the big guy!
Gutted for the big man. Just a terrible injury and especially for a guy that relies on explosive power. Of course, it takes big muscles to rip tendons, and I've done a couple myself. Get well soon dude and you've got youth on your side -- that's a big help.
As I always say, can't stand these stupid euro style injury updates. We'll probably have to wait until he has surgery and they give a timeline. That said, it certainly seems like it. At absolute best he has a partial rupture that might not require surgery. Still a 6 month rehab.
Reported now that it is a rupture and will require surgery. From his reaction, I thought it was. I've seen a couple of guys rupture their achilles and it was like they were shot or something. Even moreso than a bad knee injury.
Just for some perspective on how crushing this is, Daryl's brother Bright Dike was going to make the 2014 World Cup team for Nigeria but ruptured his Achilles shortly before the tournament. He never fully recovered. Nigeria's manager at the time said Bright was going to make the team if he was healthy. Just brutal. Daryl and Bright are two really great guys. Hate to see this happen.
[raises hand] Yup. I can attest to that. I ruptured mine about 14 years ago… I was 26-27 at the time. Running full speed with the ball, defender came in with a slide tackle, I jumped to avoid tackle, landed on soggy ground, pushed off to regain dribble and snap! My whole body moved forward, my boot in the soggy turf didn’t. I screamed as loud as I possible could. I thought someone came from behind and stood on the back of my foot with a thousand pounds of pressure. I looked around and it was just me by myself. Several players said they could hear the snap and it sounded like a giant rubber band. It took a full 6 months of surgery and recovery. Zero issues since but man that recovery was brutal.
Yes, the ones I saw were also fairly innocuous as far as play. It must be a difficult rehab physically and mentally. Glad you came through it ok!
Recovery was mostly a pain in the ass because of the giant boot I wore for 4 of the 6 months. I had very little strength in the calf, hammy, and quad months after surgery. I couldn’t even balance on that leg for 4 months. But once the strength was built up, the last 2 months were smooth and it was an easier finish to the finish line. In those last 2 months, I did a lot of small ball work. Thankfully I was rehabbed by my former college trainer.
And WBA fade into oblivion w/out Dike. Lose 3 out of their last 4 to just miss out on the playoffs. Really all they needed to do was beat Sunderland at home (instead of lose). You wonder if the big guy would have been enough to get them over the line. Their fate was frankly what them and their fans deserve. Their fortunes had turned around dramatically after Dike's return, w/ him providing target play and scoring at a solid rate. Then they experience a little lull before Dike goes down, and you saw a sizable chunk of fans take that opportunity to assert they'd be better off. Corberan was being credited for their turnaround, even though he's had a negative goal differential everywhere else (including Olympiakos somehow) and now he proceeds to fade on the season. This is becoming a real tendency where English fans fetishize some sexy Hispanic manager from Europe or the Americas as some kind of savior figure. It happened at Leeds where they still worship at the altar of Bielsa(bub) & then hailed Gracia even when they were getting the same results or worse in spite of the honeymoon effect. Conversely, Marsch became an over-the-top villain, & unequivocal successes like Dike don't even get their due. Sands got scapegoated at Rangers, just merely being adequate in UCL like practically everyone else, after helping get to their first one in a decade. Christian Ramirez got harassed relentlessly at Aberdeen, in spite of doing pretty well on the whole. The only places where this doesn't seem to occur are ones that have no/low expectations or we have a long track record of success like Fulham. I wish this weren't still the case, but it appears to be. Just look at how so many English fans were presuming domination over the US at the WC.
The British Empire still exists ... did you forget that? And now we have yet a new monarch. Time marches on. (sarcasm implied) English GDP is 1/8 of the US. So they have the EPL and their 1966 World Cup win. Need to let them be happy. and we have Philadelphia fans.
Someone mentioned it earlier but the Barnsley Dike never seemed to return after the hamstring blow out. He lost that explosive drive that overcame his technical issues. Not sure if he'll ever be the same again when he returns but he's a good kid and he's earned support wherever he ends up next.
With Wright now in the Championship and Pepi moving to PSV and Balogun heading to a big club, have folks forgotten all about Daryl?
Yes? I've liked Dike for a while, but he was/is raw and needed a lot of polishing. But he's been injured most of those key development years of his early 20s. I hope he can still grow into a guy who can play in the top leagues, but it's going to be really tough at this point.
No one has forgotten him. But it’s hard to be in the conversation if you’re continually injured. Hopefully he’s on the mend from his latest one, an Achilles. Dike posted a cryptic “patiently waiting” message on IG a few days ago.
he's probably done as a top level prospect. it sucks but it is what it is. he's missed basically the last two seasons and an achilles injury for a man that big is a horrible injury to come back from 100%. I'm not writing him off, but the range of outcomes for his career shifted downward quite a bit. just gutted for him as he's one of the most charismatic and likable personalities we have.
Pretty much. He’s got a long road to get back into the conversation. I would bet on Pefok before him, honestly.
I did a Google search to find out how he is coming along. BirminghamLive has a story quoting his coach as saying the target return is late December early January.
I'm wondering if this was a full tear given he's now tabled to return in December/January which is 8 months since the injury rather than the full year? @bshredder ?
I think some NFL guys have returned to practice (if not games) within 8 months. There's been some encouraging returns lately in other sports for achilles tears but with a guy like Dike playing a sport with so much overall running -- man I don't know. Hoping for the best but zero expectations.