Joy back on long road to fitness

Photo: Tim Bradley

HEADING FOR BOWER FOLD TOMORROW . . . Oldham's Phil Joy

PHIL Joy's shoulder operation, performed in Wilmslow, went according to plan and was said to be successful.

The Oldham prop dislocated the joint in the third game of the season against London Broncos at Bower Fold on February 19 and did it again in his first game back against Batley Bulldogs in the Etihad Campus on May 21.

Within eight hours of leaving for Wilmslow yesterday he was back home in Oldham - job done.

And he plans to walk into the dressing room at Bower Fold before tomorrow's crucial Championship game against Dewsbury Rams (8pm) to give his team-mates his moral support.

SURGEON

He said: "I was in good hands and the surgeon was delighted with how it went.

"I know I'm out for the rest of this season, obviously, so I've plenty of time and I can do my rehab steadily and on a week-to-week basis.

"Recovery time is about four months which will take me through to the start of pre-season training in November and then I'll still have another three or four months before it all starts again in earnest."

A one-club man with more than seven years' service to Roughyeds behind him, Joy added: "The plan is for me to be ready for the start of next season, but I'm not rushing anything and I'm not setting targets or deadlines.

"If I did that and I thought I was falling behind schedule I'd only get frustrated so everything I do between now and next February or so will be done strictly on a weekly basis."

He has been a stalwart of the Roughyeds' front-row ever since Scott Naylor arrived at the club to succeed Tony Benson in the autumn of 2012 and his absence this season has been a massive loss.

Naylor once said: "I never realised how much we'd miss him until he wasn't there any more."