Callum Slattery banishes ACL hell as Motherwell star reveals how Bayer Leverkusen ace helped injury fightback

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Callum Slattery never doubted he would return from his ACL hell - after watching his old Southampton mate Nathan Tella fight back from the same injury to become a Bundesliga champion.The Motherwell midfielder made his first appearance in 369 days when he climbed off the bench in the 85th minute of Sunday’s 2-0 win over Aberdeen.

That ended a year of pain and frustration after a freak training ground incident left him with serious ligament damage in his knee.Those three letters ACL are among the most dreaded for footballers.

But Slattery had seen Tella fight back to win a move to Bayer Leverkusen and knew it wouldn't spell the end. He said: “I’ve had friends in football who have done their ACL.“I played with Nathan Tella who did his and I spoke to a couple of lads in this league who’d done it, they’d also been operated on by the same surgeon.

It was just conversations around the knee and once the surgery was done that was me into the rehab.“So, it’s not that uncommon an injury.