Noah tell us about his long road to recovery, and is grateful for the Volleyball England insurance.

What happened?

In April 2019 I was playing for England in our first match of the Cornacchia U19 World Cup in Pordenone, Italy. In the second set, playing outside, I was set three balls in a row. As I landed from the third attack I felt an excruciating pain in my shin and my leg buckled.

Vanessa Lucas accompanied me in the ambulance to the local hospital where they confirmed that I had broken my tibia. They explained that I would require an operation to pin the bone back together and that returning to the UK for the procedure was not an option, as flying with an untreated tibia fracture could cause blood clots and loss of the leg.

Post surgery I spent five days in hospital with pizza, pasta and painkillers, followed by five days in a hotel before flying back home in an air ambulance, all paid for by Volleyball England’s insurance.

What did the recovery look like?

The italian doctors did an excellent job of pinning the bone back together. Their philosophy was to completely immobilise my leg for six weeks in a plaster cast after the operation. But as soon as we arrived back in the UK we found that the NHS had a different way of working. They immediately removed the cast and replaced it with a straight leg brace. I was told to remove the leg brace each day to start bending my knee to get the range of motion back into the joint.

Thanks to SportsAid’s backing I was lucky enough to work with Nic Perrem, a lecturer in sports rehabilitation at St Mary's University. He gave me a range of exercises to get the mobility back in my leg and to prevent muscle atrophy while my leg wasn’t bearing weight. He was instrumental in giving me a great start to my recovery and the confidence to progress quickly.

Over the summer I worked with both Nic Perrem and, while in France, Oliver Kieffer (a former french national volleyball team captain). Oliver guided me through the phases of recovery, from stability and mobility to strength. 

All this I documented on my twitter feed @NoahGoalenVB. Tracking my progress in this way not only helped to motivate me but also put me in touch with other athletes going through similar recoveries. Sharing these experiences helped to keep my morale up.

When did you return to play?

Initially I was aiming to be back for the NEVZA U19 tournament in October 2019. As the time got closer I realised that that was not going to be possible and I started to focus on my upcoming season at the University of Nottingham.

In September I returned to see Nic Perrem at St Mary’s University where I undertook a series of exercises to test the symmetry of strength, power and explosiveness of my legs. The results showed that although the explosiveness in both legs was similar, my left leg had a 39% strength deficit compared to my right. This was well above the maximum 10% deficit Nic recommended before starting to train and play volleyball.

Foolishly, as I wasn’t feeling any pain, I ignored his advice and returned to the court playing libero for the University of Nottingham. After a few weeks I started experiencing constant pain and I ended up back at West Middlesex hospital for more X-rays and an ultrasound.

This time the diagnosis was a patella tendinopathy brought on by my body mechanics adjusting to the asymmetry in my legs. So firstly with Nic Perrem and Jack (a physio at UoN), and then with Jon Finn and Desiree Gillespie (S&C coach and physio at UoN), I have been working through a tendinopathy rehabilitation plan. 

How are you now?

Despite there being a few setbacks recently I can say that as of now, 16 months after the break, I am feeling no pain during normal activities. I can also carry out my programme of exercises to increase the strength and explosiveness in my legs without any significant discomfort. 

In the next few months, I am hoping to keep working with Jon Finn and the rehab team at UoN to slowly increase the strength in my leg. I don’t want to repeat my previous mistake so I haven’t set a target date to return to court. This time I will follow the science!

What are your aspirations for the future

I am itching to get back on the beach courts, but at the moment I am taking it one day at a time. Once back I hope to continue my development playing on the World Tour and fighting for a place at future Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

Thank you Noah, good luck in the future.