Footballer Luke Robinson has prepared for surgery to repair his ruptured anterior cruciate ligament by completing his first marathon.

Robinson, who suffered the serious knee injury playing for Whitehawk against Carshalton in January, took up long-distance running while waiting for his operation after his consultant said he could exercise in a straight line.

His efforts resulted in a time of 3hr 33min in the Brighton Marathon, not bad for someone with a serious knee problem, and the training has helped him through a difficult period.

“I saw the consultant after eight weeks and he gave me the green light to do things in a straight line as long as it’s pain-free, so that’s when I started running,” Robinson said.

“I needed that to clear my head. Now I’m not playing football I had to pick something else up to keep me motivated and training as hard as I normally do.

“One of my friends is a good runner and she was training for it so I had basically six weeks to get myself ready. Two weeks into the training I did a half marathon and then I had four weeks before the full thing.”

Even the most hardened of runners would probably agree that a ruptured knee ligament and six weeks of training is not the ideal preparation for your first marathon and Robinson admits to struggling towards the end.

“I was mostly just glad to finish it,” Robinson said. “The last two miles were tough. It was cramp central, both my hamstrings had gone and I was just trying to get to the finish line, so I had to push through it.”

Robinson hopes to run either the Manchester Marathon on April 28 or the Worthing Half-Marathon on May 5 — just three days before his ACL surgery!

Running has eased the mental toll of facing a year on the footballing sidelines but at 26, the Bermuda player is about to undergo a second operation on the same knee nearly six years after undergoing the same procedure.

“I had the exact same injury previously in 2019, so it’s round two now,” Robinson said.

“They say it takes between nine to 12 months and last time with the rehab I pushed every single day. I went to the limit to get myself back and it still took me 12 months before I played again.

“When I was younger it was devastating. When you are that age you don’t really know how to deal with it. I still had all the opportunity and potential to try to play professionally and make something of myself in football, so that felt like a dream broken.

“Even now it still felt the same when it happened. I’m only 26 and still feel I can kick on more than where I am now and can have a really good career. It still felt like another heartbreak as I was getting somewhere, making steps and had a few opportunities coming up in different countries and all that came crashing down.

“So it’s not an easy thing to deal with and the only saving grace is that I’ve been able to take my mind off it with running. But when you’re at home and it’s quiet and there is nothing to do, it does hit you that it’s going to be this way for another year.”

Until his injury, Robinson had been a regular for Bermuda under Michael Findlay and he admits that missing out on the chance to play for the country this year has been one of the biggest blows.

“As soon as the injury happened, the first thing that came into my mind was that I would be missing the games against Honduras, World Cup qualification in the summer and the Nations League when it all starts again between September and November,” he said.

“I know I won’t be back for those and that makes me very emotional as those games are a big part of my career and what I love to do. My biggest achievement in football is to be able to represent Bermuda, so it was hard to take. It was gutting.”

If there has been one positive to take, Robinson insists his time away from football has allowed him to start his own fitness business, which is thriving on the south coast in England.

“I started my own business about five months ago and now I get the chance to run it, and keep it growing as much as I can,” he said.

“I’m a personal trainer and make programmes and nutrition plans online. I really enjoy it and it’s taken off. I’ve progressed into doing fitness classes, one-to-ones, coaching in person and online, so it’s all going well.”