JETS games record-holder Ben Kantarovski says retirement has never crossed his mind despite his continuing battle to get back from one of his toughest injury setbacks.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Kantarovski returned to full training late last month after being sidelined since November with a nerve problem, which has caused calf tightness and is believed to have contributed to hamstring strains at the end of his 2019-20 season.
The midfielder had injections in his lower back to alleviate the problem and get back on the training pitch.
The 29-year-old, who has a record 196 A-League appearances for the club, is still working back to full fitness after not running for two months but says he is ready to play a role for coach Craig Deans.
"I'm not too sure. I haven't really spoken to Deansy about it," Kantarovski said of potentially returning against Sydney FC on Saturday at Jubilee Stadium.
"I've just been working myself, making sure the body is right and getting it fit and capable to be able to do the job if I'm called upon and when I'm called upon.
"Just making sure we're ticking all the boxes, coming to training every day each week. It's been a couple of weeks now so hopefully the body is holding up pretty well and hopefully Deansy picks me."
Kantarovski debuted as a 16-year-old for Newcastle but has lost almost two seasons in total to major knee injuries.
He said the latest injury battle has "probably been one of the toughest ones".
"Most of the other ones have had a set deadline on recovery time, treatment plan and whatnot, but this one's been a bit more difficult because of circumstances out of our control," he said.
"But now that we're back training and slowly starting to get my fitness back up to where it's got to be to play in games, it's good to be back out with the boys.
"It was a difficult one to diagnose and I think the more the fact it was hard to treat, but credit to the medical staff here. We've worked very hard to make sure that we were very diligent in the way we went about things, so to be able to get out on the field now and hopefully play out the rest of the season, it's a credit to them and everyone here at the club."
Asked what was the driving force to get back on the field, he said: "The love of football I guess.
"There's nothing better than coming day in, day out to play the best sport in the world.
"So to be able to still do that, and at the highest quality in Australia, I think [retirement] wasn't even a question in my mind.
"It was more, how quickly can I get back and making sure the injury stays away for the foreseeable future, so that was the biggest thing.
"[Retiring] never really even crossed my mind. It was more, I can't wait to be back out there. How quick, how soon can I get fit and I just want to get out there and help the boys."
He said the injections were "more to settle down the nerve and everything around it". He has not had more since returning to training.
"They are not too sure as to how long it will last or if it would even work to begin with, that's probably why it took so long," he said of the treatment.
"It was such a difficult one to treat, but now we are on that home stretch and hopefully it does stay away and I can stay fit.
"There's not too much downtime after the injections. You can only have so many in a given timeframe, then you've got to let the body do its thing, so fingers crossed the body takes those injections on board, does its thing with them and it helps it heal quite well."
Kantarovski, who is contracted until the end of next season, has so far avoided surgery, which he said was "a very last resort".
"That's quite a drastic and risky surgery, so we want to stay away from that avenue, but if it does come down to it, we may have to look at that later down the track," he said. "These injections have worked for the time being and fingers crossed it does keep it at bay."
"It's been a tough one, because it's always tough to not play, especially starting pre-season and working hard with all the boys, and then you sort of miss a chunk.
"A lot of the time I wasn't even at training because I had to do certain gym sessions and doctors appointments, and I'm going to Sydney a fair bit, so it was tough.
"But just to be back around the boys and playing again is pretty good.
"We've got a very good squad, we've got a lot of depth across the entire squad now so it's going to be tough just to get back in the playing mix.
"I'll have to work really hard day in, day out at training and give the headache to Deansy as to who he wants to pick."
IN THE NEWS:
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark: newcastleherald.com.au
- Download our app
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News