By John Wilkinson FROM playing in a winning England Counties side to suffering a season-ending knee injury – it’s been a week of highs and lows for Coventry prop Andy Brown.
The 27-year-old loose head underwent surgery on Monday, and instead of looking ahead to this weekend’s clash with high-riding Ampthill and another England Counties game in Ireland has had to fix his sights on the summer and being ready for the start of pre-season training.
“I had an operation to repair the cartilage and stitch the meniscus back together,” said Brown, who received the injury when he was kicked by a cow on his farm land in Ashbourne.
“I’ll be in a knee brace for six weeks – I’ve got to really look after it to make sure I’ll be fit for the start of next season, but I’ll definitely be running on it by the middle of June.
“These things happen – but to be honest, there was a bit of damage in there from an operation I had six years ago so it has been a chance to have a clean up.”
Added Brown, who sources beef for a major supermarket chain: “I’m gutted to be missing next week’s game in Ireland.
“One week I’m getting my England Counties cap for playing three games and the next week I’m having an operation, but then I watched the Leicester Tigers game on television and saw Sam Harrison damage his cruciate ligaments which was awful.
“It’s annoying that it didn’t even happen at work – it was at home with my own cattle, they were being bedded down and a cow ran round and caught me. It all happened so quickly.
“It will be the biggest break from rugby I’ve had since I was 17-years-old, so it’s given me a chance to have a proper rest and hopefully I’ll come back fitter and stronger.”
