D’Cunha returns

Western Sydney Wanderers defender Shayne D’Cunha made his return to the field last weekend after injury kept him out of the game for more than half the year.

Shayne D'Cunha,19, has just signed a senior contract with the Western Sydney Wamderers.Shayne D'Cunha

Western Sydney Wanderers defender Shayne D’Cunha made his return to the pitch last weekend after injury kept him out of the game for more than half the year.

The 19-year-old Cherrybrook footballer — who signed a senior contract with the Western Sydney Wanderers earlier this year — spent seven months recovering from a bilateral stress fracture on his spine.

“During April and May I was starting to get a lot of pain through the glute area and it wouldn’t really go away,” D’Cunha said.

“And in May I finally got an MRI on my back and they found a stress fracture at the bottom of the vertebrae and it was a bilateral fracture, so it was on both sides of the vertebrae.

“It was pretty scary.”

The injury was caused by a “combination of a lot of things” and D’Cunha was ordered to rest.

It was D’Cunha’s first major injury and his first significant time away from football.

“Initially it was good to get a break because I’d been playing a lot of back to back seasons ... but after a couple of months you start to miss it a lot,” he said.

“It took longer than I thought it would, which was really frustrating ... it becomes very mentally tough.”

After three months of rest, D’Cunha was able to return to running and gradually worked in the gym to get his fitness back.

“It was a good learning curve to experience a major injury and learn to deal with it physically and mentally,” he said.

D’Cunha said while the physical treatment was straightforward, “mentally it was a bit different”.

“You’ve got to calm your mind and put positive thoughts in your head and focus on what you can do in the future,” he said.

“You’ve got to be patient I guess.”

The patience paid off, with D’Cunha back in action for Round 5 of the Foxtel National Youth League on the weekend.

The Wanderers beat the FFA Centre of Excellence 3-1 on Sunday at Blacktown International Sportspark.

It was D’Cunha’s first match since April, when he played in Round 27 of the Hyundai A-League, but he said he felt more than ready.

“I was excited,” he said.

“I responded quite well to the game and I haven’t shown any symptoms since.”

D’Cunha has made some changes to his routine since the injury and said he “learnt a lot” from the experience.

“I’ve changed a few things like how I move and the exercises I do, which will help me move better and hopefully prevent something like this happening again,” he said.