Game 46

Out again with Em and this time on the opposite line was Captain C. We arrived early and were greeted by Bazcas with some banter.

A good warm up helped me loosen up the tight muscles from last night's training and no sign of the tweak at all. The tweak itself hadn't felt like a hamstring strain but a clicking or grinding in my hip joint. It was very unpleasant.

This game was to and fro with a fair amount of intervention by Em. The away side, higher in the league put a lot of pressure on the home team but they seemed to be coping well until the final couple of minutes of the first half when they conceded a goal. I had a good time chatting to the home left back about a band he had around his wrist which had to go - it was good natured fun.

In the second half some substitutions changed things around a little and Em had to caution three players, one at my request for something he said. The away side doubled their lead and looked comfortable. Both teams made a couple of appeals for penalties during the course of the game, but Em waved them away. Also in the second half, a little overstretch left me with a dull ache in the hamstring area of my right leg - the same one as tweaked last night.

As things stand I've spent around 45 minutes with an icepack on the back of my leg, I'm going to start my game tomorrow, but it seems likely I'll have to miss my game on Monday evening when I'm supposed to be on a Minor FA group decider. If it was the middle of a reserve game or something with a little less pace, then I might risk it, but on the line I've no doubt I'll be required to sprint at some point and I'm not fit for that. Some of that lack of fitness is mental but I don't want to risk ending my season early and missing out on my honour appointments in April/May.

It was a hard working line with 1463 calories burned, 90% max 79% average. Time to head back to the icepack ...