Mathare United defensive midfielder Harun Junior on Tuesday underwent a successful surgery on a torn anterior cruciate ligament at a Nairobi hospital.
The defender has been out of action for a year since picking the injury in a league match against Sofapaka in February, 2020 when he slipped and landed badly while challenging for the ball with an opponent.
Harun said he had initially dismissed the injury as a minor setback but a thorough magnetic resonance imaging conducted later exposed a more severe damage.
"I never even imagined the injury would keep me out of our next league match," said Harun.
The sudden outbreak of the novel Covid-19 in the country, however, delayed appropriate treatment, forcing him instead to resort to physical therapy rehabilitation that helped strengthen his knee muscles.
Speaking to the Star on Wednesday, Harun remained optimistic that he would recover soon enough to help his teammates battle for a respectable position in the top tier as the season enters its most crucial stage.
"I surely can't say when I'll be ready for action but after the doctors conducted a successful surgery, I believe it won't be long," he observed.
The club's doctor Wycliffe Omom confirmed that Harun was indeed on his way to recovery, adding that yesterday's process was informed by a second MRI performed earlier in the month.
“The procedure that Harun underwent was a reconstruction whereby the damaged ligament was replaced by a piece of a tendon extracted from another part of the knee,” Omom explained.
“As extreme as that sounds, it wasn't a lengthy procedure and the surgeon who conducted it was very impressed with how stable the muscles around Harun’s knee were, making his work much easier as well as expediting the healing process,” he added.
The Slum Boys have a growing list of injury concerns with David Ochieng and Clifford Alwanga also being ruled out of action indefinitely. Ochieng suffered a knock to the ribs in their home encounter against Western Stima while Alwanga sprained his knee while training at the Goan Institute.
The 2008 Kenyan Premier League champions have incorporated the services of former Sofapaka defensive midfielder David Simiyu as coach Salim Ali seeks to plug the gaps and bolster his squad.
