Town forward Jack Lankester is set to undergo surgery on his back injury and will require five months of rehabilitation before the Blues have a clear idea of when he will be able to return.

Having made his first-team debut in October last year, Lankester, 19, suffered a stress fracture of his back in January, which ended his breakthrough season early. In total he made five starts and six sub appearances.

The Bury St Edmunds-based youngster returned in pre-season but suffered another stress fracture in the game against Fortuna Dusseldorf at the Interwetten Cup in Meppen, pictured above.

The academy product, who will be a guest on tomorrow's Life's a Pitch, will go under the knife next week before beginning a lengthy period of rehabilitation.

"“Jack had a stress fracture in January. After a period of six months’ rehabilitation and further scans, he was cleared by a specialist to return to pre-season training,” Town physio Matt Byard told the club site.

“Unfortunately Jack suffered a subsequent stress fracture against Fortuna. It’s a completely new injury.

Gutted is an understatement.
However I will be using this time to get stronger and prepare myself for a big return 👍 Thankyou to everyone for all the messages and I’ll see you back on the pitch soon @IpswichTown 💙🙏 https://t.co/prQjmA1UrM

— Jack Lankester (@lankester_jack) August 9, 2019

""“Having spoken to leading consultants in the UK and the US, they have advised us that a minimally invasive procedure will help his fracture to heal.

“This is specialist approach to the treatment of a stress fracture and he will have surgery next week.

"He will then have a focused rehabilitation period over the coming months.""“He will have a scan after five months and from there we will have a much clearer idea of when he can return to training.”

Lankester's absence for the first half of the season, probably longer, is a further blow for the Blues with Teddy Bishop out for three months with a knee injury and Tristan Nydam sidelined for six months with a broken ankle.

Photo: TWTD

Bluearmy_81 added 17:38 - Aug 9 And Sears. Terrible luck. Stay positive Jack.
9

homer_123 added 17:39 - Aug 9 Bad news. Good luck on the recovery. Appears our injury hoodoo isnt leaving anytime soon.
6

hampstead_blue added 17:39 - Aug 9 Only at Ipswich does this happen.......
1

lightingblue added 17:40 - Aug 9 Sounds like an unfortunate injury. I guess with back injuries, similar to areas like the knee, it has to be treated with the upmost caution. Again I understand they are complex areas. Hopefully he comes back totally refreshed and helps the team push on for what we hope will be a push for promotion. Hear is for a successful rehabilitation.
3

Girthyguy added 17:56 - Aug 9 Ffs really!!!
1

midastouch added 18:03 - Aug 9 That's a real shame to say the least. We just seem absolutely jinxed on the injury front, please somebody call a witch doctor to remove the curse.
2

Linkboy13 added 18:14 - Aug 9 Terrible luck for the lad who was showing so much promise possibly his young body wasn't ready for championship football remembering what happened to Andre Dozzell when he came into the first team early.
1

Ryorry added 18:15 - Aug 9 Poor man, awful news for him personally and us as a club. Stay strong Jack, we're rooting for you!
3

tractorboy12341234 added 18:21 - Aug 9 Really losing faith in the medical team at Town, seems like whenever there's an injury to a player he will play 3 or 4 games and then is out again! I hope it's not the case but it seems unlikely that we are just the unluckiest club in the world
2

BlueandTruesince82 added 18:28 - Aug 9 OMG its witchcraft. Swift recovery chap
1

SickParrot added 18:42 - Aug 9 Are stress fractures of the back common? I have never heard of it before. I hope this doesn't indicate an underlying weaknessas Jack could be a top player.
3

AndyUK61873 added 18:56 - Aug 9 @sickparrot...did some research as I was wondering that myself....this is what i found out in a medical journal....not common for us general folks, but appears young athletes still growing it is common Spondylolysis refers to a stress fracture commonly found in the low back (lumbar vertebrae) that occurs in a small percentage of the general population. However, this condition is quite common in young athletes, particularly those whose bones are still growing and developing.

3

chorltonskylineblue added 19:40 - Aug 9 Think it's pretty common in fast bowlers in cricket, but they put a hell of a strain on their bodies. Hopefully it's down to Jack's age and he'll make a full recovery and not be prone to them throughout his career. Enjoyed watching him last season.
1

Nobbysnuts added 19:58 - Aug 9 Why cant someone just get a dead leg. FFS!!!!!!!
1

Gforce added 20:09 - Aug 9 I believe Jack is going to be a top top player,absolutely destined for the premier league.The only consolation with him not playing for a while, Will be that he won't get snapped up by the premier league vultures ( probably on the cheap) as the scouts were out in force towards the end of last season. It will be like having a quality new signing,when he returns towards the end of the season or next season.

0

Edmundo added 20:16 - Aug 9 This is bad news: there's a lot of research now into young athletes and the consensus at the moment is that there are a lot of kids who get spotted young who end up injury-prone because they are basically not subjecting their body to enough variation of physical exercise (it's just football, football, football, and the clubs they're signed to often forbid them from playing other sports). That's not to say this is the case with Jack, but may explain why some of the younger footballers who get an injury really struggle to get over it. Best of luck to Jack: I'm actually sure he's in the best hands...

1

Linkboy13 added 20:22 - Aug 9 There must be big question marks over the treatment and diagnosis of injuries at Portman road players seem to go to other clubs and get sorted for example Mcgoldrick and Webster who both won their clubs fan's player of the year awards. Perhaps it's time we sent our players for independent diagnosis on injured players.
-2

alfromcol added 20:36 - Aug 9 Stop raising Mcgoldrick as an example, he wanted to return to the Midlands and it may have been part fo his cunning plan?
3

Dissblue added 20:39 - Aug 9 Evans needs to replace him now!
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Lightningboy added 21:17 - Aug 9 Good grief...what on earth are they putting in the water in Ipswich? 🙄
0

runningout added 23:57 - Aug 9 It's a nightmare. It's becoming a sad joke on our part!! Sounds harsh but wouldn't have any that are out injured now in any plan for this season. If we don't recruit better at any level and not on hope, this will happen again and again.
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Lord_Mac added 09:17 - Aug 10 Obviously there's an element of luck about injuries, but the number of injuries that we have got, year after year, makes one wonder if we are off the pace with our medical/physio care? We had that issue with the young Academy lad who didn't get the proper care which was reported in the press recently. Is this the tip of an iceberg? Is it time for an independent review of our medical/physio care, to see what can be done to protect our investment in our players of all ages?

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