Clarke was voted the best hooker in the club's history by Wolves supporters

By Paul Garrity BBC Radio Merseyside

It has been a nightmare 12 months for Warrington hooker Jon Clarke.

Instead of helping the Wolves claim the 2009 Challenge Cup last August and rise to second in this season's Super League, he has had to settle for the treatment room.

The 31-year-old has endured many operations to repair a stress fracture in his ankle.

And, while he has been out of action, there have even been occasions when the former Wigan man thought he may have to retire from the game.

But having now got back to full fitness, not far from a return to the Wolves starting line-up, Clarke can look back and reflects on how the last year went so wrong.

"I just started getting a bit of a small pain in my shin," Clarke told BBC Radio Merseyside, "which got progressively worse over the next six to eight weeks.

"It culminated in the Wakefield game before the Challenge Cup final at Wembley. I came off and I couldn't move my foot after the game.

"I had a scan on the Tuesday which showed a big fracture through my inside ankle bone.

"The surgeon said 'that's it, your season is over,' because it was a stress fracture as I played on it for so many weeks."

At the time Warrington were on the verge of winning their first Challenge Cup in 35 years.

"The main distress was that I was going to miss Wembley after being at the club for 10 years, he said. "And the club hadn't been anywhere near since about 1990.

"I was distraught, but the other part of me was thinking I was glad they'd found out what was wrong with me, because it was getting to a point were they didn't know what was up."

All appeared to be going well following the first operation and Clarke was back in pre-season training in November.

But after complaining of pain, Clarke's worst fears were realised as the original crack in his bone was found to have travelled along the ankle.

"I'm starting to worry at this time and a few things came to light," revealed Clarke. "The first one was 'am I ever going to play again and is this ever going to heal?'

"I know I'm only 31 but, in rugby terms, you're coming towards the back end of your career and, in healing terms, you're starting to slow down. At 31, I wasn't healing like I was 18 any more, so I was worried.

"But I've managed to get it to heal fully and three weeks ago I managed to get the all-clear."

Clarke hopes to be back in the side as soon as possible following his full recovery as he aims to help his side to another Challenge Cup success, as well as putting pressure on Wigan at the top of Super League.

"We've got the right coaches in place and we've the right squad in place," Clarke said. "But you've got to be impressed with Wigan and the way they've started.

"I think St Helens have come strong again, which I hate to say and there is ourselves. Apart from that, I think it's been a quite topsy-turvy season for teams who had been predicted to do quite well.

"But you can't rule Leeds out. Particularly when they have so much experience in their team and in the big games, they know how to win."

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