A Wrexham star has confessed he contemplated ending his playing career after sustaining a major injury
Wrexham midfielder Ollie Rathbone has scored twice since returning from a serious injury(Image: Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)
Wrexham star Ollie Rathbone has admitted he considered quitting football after suffering a serious ankle injury in pre-season.
The midfielder was named as the North Wales outfit’s player of the season last term after helping them secure promotion from League One. However, Rathbone was dealt a major blow ahead of Wrexham’s first second tier campaign in 43 years after sustaining an injury during the club’s pre-season tour of New Zealand and Australia.
The 29-year-old, who joined the Red Dragons from Rotherham United in August 2024, had only featured once this season until recently. That was before he scored a late equaliser for Wrexham in a 2-2 draw at home against Watford in the Championship on December 13.
Rathbone continued his heroics on Monday after coming off the bench to score Wrexham’s second goal of the night in a 2-1 win over Preston North End at the Racecourse Ground. Speaking after the Watford game, he said he felt like the “forgotten man” following his injury.
He has now opened up in a post on social media site LinkedIn about how he even contemplated retiring from football, revealing it was only an intervention by his parents which stopped him from doing so. It came after he shared pictures highlighting the lengthy gap between his pre-season injury and returning to league action.
Rathbone wrote: “There are 150 days between the two photos below. The picture on the left is me limping off the pitch in pre-season with a serious ankle injury. The picture on the right is me scoring a 90th-minute equaliser two minutes after coming on in my first league appearance of the season.
Wrexham’s Ollie Rathbone suffered a serious ankle injury during the club’s pre-season friendly against Sydney FC(Image: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)
“The time in between has been by far the most difficult period of my career, getting back to full fitness, set back after set back and finding myself out the team. I hated the situation I found myself in, I felt sorry for myself, wallowed in self pity and moaned to anybody who would listen about how hard done by I had been.”
He added: “I told my parents one afternoon how fed up I was and how I was close to completely sacking it off, they looked at me and said, ‘Oliver that’s not you and it’s definitely not us.’
“They made me promise that no matter what I would stay positive, give my all and make sure I was ready for my chance when it came. The fact they were there to see that goal made it even more special, it only happened because of them.”
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Ollie Rathbone is the son of former defender Mick Rathbone, who starred for Preston during his playing days before returning to the club as a physio following his retirement. Wrexham’s win over the Lilywhites saw them climb up to 11th in the Championship table and means they are now just four points below the play-off spots.
Nathan Broadhead opened the scoring for the Red Dragons in the 29th minute of Monday night’s game after heading home a cross from fellow Wales international Kieffer Moore. Rathbone doubled Wrexham’s advantage with just over ten minutes on the clock, before Alfie Devine grabbed a late consolation for Preston.
Speaking after the match, Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson said: “I’m very pleased. I felt it was important that we backed up the Boxing Day win and performance and we spoke to the lads about that mentality.
“Tonight was about if we could respond to a really good performance where we had a lot of praise against Sheffield United and have that accountability individually and collectively. I felt we did that really well.”
