Darius' Rent-A-Recovery Success

Last updated : 04 February 2003 By Rob Cooper
An automatic hire car has been the secret to Darius Henderson's recent return to fitness, according to the 6ft 2in centre-forward.

The highly-rated 21-year-old, who weighed in with twelve goals last season, has been in and out of the side this season, dogged by a persistent knee injury.

However, a goal and an assist in Reading's 5-2 win over Burnley last weekend indicated that Darius was back to his incredible best.

Following his first strike of the campaign he admitted that his knee injury had been getting worse the more he drove his manual car, until Enterprise came to the rescue.

"I normally drive a manual gear change car but I realised that constantly changing gear was making the injury to my left knee even worse.

"Enterprise Rent-a-Car offered to loan me an automatic until the injury cleared up and that certainly played a big part in my recovery."

After showing encouraging pre-season form injury has limited Henderson to just eight substitute appearances this season.

Boss Alan Pardew is confident that the big centre-forward can make a big impression on the first team during the remainder of the campaign.