One of Hull City’s biggest dressing room characters has opened up on his ongoing injury concern, with surgery on the cards eventually
Matt Crooks remains determined to play on despite damaging a muscle near his shoulder in the gripping win over Leicester City back in October.
Crooks was hurt when he slipped inside the box as Liam Millar powered in Joe Gelhardt’s cross to give Hull City the lead, and it was thought he would need surgery.
Initial assessments suggested he would be out for around three months, but after discussions with doctors, it was decided that he could continue playing.
WATCH: Matt Crooks looks ahead to Boro clash
The experienced campaigner, who is in line to start against former club Middlesbrough on Friday night, admits that the injury was anything but funny, given the pain and discomfort he was initially in.
“My sister even texted me, and she was like, ‘Oh great assist for the goal’ after the game, slipping, ha ha, and I was like, ‘It’s not funny,’ he told Hull Live.
“Everyone was joking with me, and I obviously knew that I’d done what I’d done. I’m comfortable with it at the minute. I can play through it, and if the gaffer is happy for me to play and he feels like I’m contributing, then I’m happy to continue.
“We’re playing well. I’m enjoying the football, so I want to continue playing as well. It’s something that maybe at the end of the season when all the games are done and dusted, I’ll maybe get it looked at and have surgery on it, but at the minute it’s not something that I’m willing to do.
“In the Leicester game, it was really painful, and then maybe a couple of games after that, it was pretty sore. Now it’s not too bad. It’s just trying to have the strength in it to kind of push off, and obviously in the game I’m.
“Even in that brawl (at Stoke), I’m trying to push people off with this (right) arm. I was only half strength, and I was still able to push people off,” he joked.
“It’s not too bad, pain-wise; that’s why I feel like I’m comfortable enough to play on, but I’d like it to be fixed at some point. The doc will say if I want pain relief, but it’s not too bad, so at the minute. It’s just trying to get my strength in it. It’s quite lengthy if I get it operated on, so I want to leave it.”
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Crooks has been influential in recent weeks and had a major impact at Stoke City last weekend. Having not been awarded a first half penalty, it was his tackle that set Mo Belloumi away to feed Joe Gelhardt to bag the winning goal. That improved second-half showing came from dropping back into midfield, something he enjoys.
“It’s changed throughout games, really. When I was younger, I always played a little bit deeper. In a weird way, I enjoy it a little bit more because I get a few more touches on the ball and a few more passes and feel a bit more involved in the game, whereas sometimes in that 10 role, you kind of have to be a bit patient.
“Then sometimes I feel like the game just passes me by and it probably looks worse when a 6’5 guy’s letting the game passing him by, rather than a 5’10, number 10.
“It’s tricky, but you’ve got to do what the gaffer wants, what the team wants. I was watching The Overlap the other day. Was it Des Walker who was talking about just about players affecting games?
“Sometimes you just listen, and I actually listened intently to that because it does make sense sometimes, you’re a footballer, you’re on the pitch, you’re the one that makes a difference.
“Sometimes it’s got to be upon you to take it upon yourself to affect the game. Sometimes in recent weeks, I’ve thought to myself, ‘You’re not really doing anything here, you need to figure out how you can affect the game’, and that’s what I did for the QPR game.
“I started dropping deeper, but I kept giving it away, so I was affecting the game, but just for the wrong team and then I got booked as well! I’m trying to affect the game, whether that be trying to control the game a little bit more or trying to get more goals or whatever, just trying to imprint myself on a game.
“That’s where I first started. Probably that’s where I feel like I’m most effective, but it was really at Middlesbrough where I started taking on a 10 role under Michael Carrick, so it’s kind of come full circle, really, we’re having this conversation. Wherever the team needs me, I’ll try to fill that role.”
Crooks was booked at QPR and missed the defeat to Ipswich Town having picked up five bookings, and was booked again in the win at Stoke City, having seen a cast-iron penalty shout after 10 minutes waved away by referee Leigh Doughty.
“It was just a daft one, it just summed up my second half (at QPR) really. I felt like I could get there in time, but I wanted to wait a little bit so I could kick it off him, but then I was way too late and just kicked him. It’s one of those things in the game, like I’ve said it before loads of times.
“I feel like I’m sometimes judged a bit more harshly than the others because of my size. For example, on Saturday against Stoke, I feel like if that was someone smaller, he’d (referee) probably more than likely give it, but because I’m bigger and they see a bigger fellow going down, they don’t tend to blow up as easily.
“I spoke to him (Doughty) after, obviously I knew it was on TV, so I said he must have seen it, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve seen it’. He said, ‘I can’t give that. ‘ ‘I said, Well, what do you mean?’ He said, ‘In real time and where I was, I couldn’t really see.’ I knew that he’d completely taken me, and then two seconds later, tried to hook the ball to make it look like it was a clean tackle. That was his decision, and you get on with it.”
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