Explained: When Tendayi Darikwa hopes to return for Nottingham Forest
Soccer Football - Championship - Nottingham Forest vs Derby County - The City Ground, Nottingham, Britain - March 11, 2018 Nottingham Forest's Tendayi Darikwa fouls Derby County's Kasey Palmer and is later shown a yellow card Action Images/Andrew Boyers EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
Tendayi Darikwa is hoping he’ll return in time to play a few games for Nottingham Forest before the season ends. The 27-year-old ruptured his Anterior Cruciate Ligament in August and was ruled out for the remainder of 2019.
At the time, Sabri Lamouchi said it would take six months for Darikwa to recover, but the defender just hopes he’ll return “at the back end of the season” to play at least once. Darikwa told Nottinghamshire Live: “So far, so good.
“It’s a long-term injury, so it’s slow progress. But I’m happy that I am making progress. The main thing is just to stay focused on the rehab – do everything that the doctors and the physios are telling me to do.
“Hopefully I can then get back at the back end of the season. We haven’t put a timescale on an exact return date just yet, because it’s still so early. But I’m hopeful, with a bit of good luck and a lot of hard work, I might get lucky and play a few games.
“I’m just trying to build the muscle back up in my leg, because I wasn’t able to put pressure on my leg for a good few weeks. I’ve been back in the gym, back on the bike and doing a lot of strength work at the minute.”
Darikwa would have been first-choice at right-back had it not been for the injury. The Zimbabwe international has made 63 appearances for Forest since his 2017-move from Burnley and was a regular in 2018/19 with 31 appearances in all competitions.
Carl Jenkinson deputised in his absence before he picked up an injury of his own, forcing Matty Cash to operate in the makeshift role. Forest have thrived despite their injury woes at right-back and could go top of the Championship if they better West Bromwich Albion’s result this weekend.
As for Darikwa, all he can do is work hard on recovering. Forest have six games to play in April/May, so there may be an opportunity for the right-back to feature this season if he recovers in time.