Derek Geary's comeback from knee injury so serious that he was written off by virtually anyone who knows him has been hailed by his own manager.

Even medical experts did not give too much credence to the player's attempt to get back to playing at top level, and Kevin Blackwell is equally impressed:

"Derek has done absolutely magnificently to confound all the doubters. But this is really his last chance because the knee, after five operations and no cartilage, won't take any more serious treatment if he injures it again.

"The bone was drilled, then the wound was allowed to bleed and left to crystallize, and that is what he has instead of cartilage - there is nothing else there.

"He just felt that he didn't want to give up when so many others would have called it a day, without feeling that he had given himself every chance to play again, no matter what pain and loneliness he put himself through."