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Kyle Dempsey has opened up on the pain he suffered whilst playing for Wanderers this season with a fractured back.
After picking up the injury in a heavy challenge against Fleetwood just four games into the new campaign, the midfielder tried to patch himself up and continued to play regularly until the start of October, when scans detected a problem in his vertebrae.
Looking back at the decision to play on, Dempsey admits he did himself no favours by carrying the injury as long as he did.
“For me, it has been a really difficult year,” he said. “I don’t think many fans would have realised at the time when I was playing, and my standards sort of started dropping, that I played for a good two months with the fractured back.
“Because of the numbers we were down to at the time, and we didn’t really have any midfield options, I just thought I could keep getting out there. I’d do my best.
“I was only really training Thursdays and Fridays to try and manage the pain and loading up on painkillers and injections just to stay out there on the field.
“It got to the point where my levels of performance had dropped that much that I had to try and protect myself, and that is a learning curve for me.
“Sometimes you think you are doing a job for the team and helping the team but I was so hindered I couldn’t really turn or get up to maximum speed.”
Even after returning a month later with a goal in the 7-0 thumping of Exeter City, Dempsey carried a hamstring injury for a number of weeks, further limiting his performances.
He managed to start 28 games for Bolton in all competitions but is now hoping that a full pre-season can get him back up to speed, allowing him to make more of an impact when the team returns in the summer.
“From last year, at the back end of the season, I had such a good run of form and was playing really good football,” he said. “And then I started off this season really well too.
“But I have just been hindered, really. It has been one of those seasons where I have had injuries which I haven’t been able to help. It has been frustrating and disappointing.”
Dempsey is one of nine players who has made a century of appearances for Ian Evatt at Wanderers, his milestone reached in the Good Friday goalless draw at Stevenage.
Ricardo Santos, Gethin Jones, George Thomason, Aaron Morley, Dion Charles, Josh Sheehan and Dapo Afolayan are the other centurions under the Bolton boss – but with two years left on the contract he signed last summer, Dempsey is looking forward to adding many more to his tally.
“I didn’t realise it at the time but to get that many appearances under my belt in such a short space of time is massive, especially at a club of this size,” he said.
“It is something that I am proud of. I’ve still got a long time left on my contract and I want to make as many appearances as I can.”
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