I'm Helpless

By Andy Rose

21 October 2004

Carlos EdwardsCROCKED Wrexham star Carlos Edwards admits the only guarantee he has right now is that he won't be sold off to help save the club from extinction.

The influential wing-back is well on the road to recovery after rupturing knee ligaments while on international duty in June.

But while he hopes to bounce back a fitter, stronger and ultimately better player than before Edwards accepts his future is even more unclear than most of his teammates.

It is all a far cry from last season when Edwards was on the crest of a wave and finished the campaign as the club's most prized playing asset.

The Trinidad and Tobago international had forced his way back into the reckoning for his country's World Cup campaign, was named in the PFA Division Two Team of the Year by his fellow professionals and was the subject of a failed £200,000 bid from Preston. Then his world came crashing down. The 26-year-old suffered a serious knee injury requiring surgery and has been battling his way back to fitness ever since.

But he admits it has been agony to sit on the sidelines while the League One club toiled both on and off the pitch.

"It's been a frustrating time for me because it's the first major injury I have had in my career," said Edwards.

"It was down to pure bad luck but hopefully it happened for a reason and things will turn out for the best in the future.

"I've always been a positive kind of guy and look on the bright side of everything but there have been times when I have asked my wife if she thinks I will be the same player when I come back.

"I can't remember her exact words but it was something positive and just what I needed to hear.

"Thankfully so far everything is going according to plan in terms of my rehabilitation.

"This week I have just started to use my injured leg for the first time so it's an important stage in my recovery."

Whether there is still a club to play for by the time Edwards returns is something he hates to even contemplate. But with the club on the verge of administration if a saviour cannot be found within the next two weeks the long-term future looks uncertain.

Administration would bring with it an automatic 10-point deduction in the league and raise the spectre of players being sold to cut the wage bill. But Edwards knows he won't be among them.

"If the club is to fold then I would be very lucky to get a new club because of my injury," said Edwards.

"The others wouldn't have that problem but that's just the reality I have to face at the moment.

"It's not a problem to me at the moment because it is out of my control.

"But I just hope something can be done to save the club. It's a great club with a great history and we don't want to see it go after so many years."

Edwards remains indifferent to suggestions he should have left the club last season when his stock was high for the good of both himself and the club.

"I can't afford to look back at things like that," he said.

"You never know what could have happened if I had left but I believe things usually turn out for the best."

Edwards, like a whole host of his teammates and even his manager, is out of contract come the end of the season.

However all thoughts of a new deal are on the back burner while Edwards concentrates on making a New Year comeback.

But while the long, lonely hours in the gym and the frustration of being unable to kick a ball for months may have tipped some players over the edge the former army conscript insists he has been taking it all in his stride.

"I'm not the kind of person who can mope around and say this is boring," he said.

"When I was in the army I lived a disciplined life and it is still embedded in me as a footballer.

"I'm a hard working guy and the way I look at it is even if I have to break a leg to become a better player so be it.

"Hard work doesn't scare me. In the army I spent five or six months training without even seeing the civilised world. I can cope with this and I see it as my big challenge to get myself back into contention for the first team."