Patient Stories

On Saturday 5th March 2011 Bath and England rugby union star Olly Barkley suffered a horrific double fracture of his distal tibia and fibula during Bath’s 34-22 loss to Gloucester. The injury was a result of a collision with his team-mate Butch James as Bath pushed for a try while trailing 26-15. It was a particularly cruel blow for Olly, who had missed much of the 2009 season with a similar fracture to the same leg. 

Immediately after the injury his leg was straightened on the field, with Olly given laughing gas to distract from the agonising pain.

Olly recalls that “I had to have my leg put back in place on the field because the whole lower quarter of my left leg was pointing off in a bizarre direction.”

Once the leg was straightened the former Gloucester player - who has 23 caps and 82 points for England - underwent immediate surgery. Doctors at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital inserted a metal rod and some screws through his tibia.

But for Olly what was tougher to deal with than the physical pain was the realisation of what the fracture meant to his career.  “When I broke my leg all I could think about was nine months. All I could see was nine months recovery in front of me.”

Olly was keen to progress with his recovery as soon as possible and it wasn’t long before he began EXOGEN treatment. “I moved onto EXOGEN after two or three weeks once the swelling had gone down and I could move around a little. I had heard good reviews about it and I obviously wanted to do everything I could to encourage the healing process.”

As well as pain and the inconvenience of the injury, Olly had to deal with boredom and extended periods of inactivity. As an elite athlete this was something he was not used to doing, so Olly helped fill his time by working on his rugby academy Elektrik3 aimed at 9-16 year olds.

“The handiest thing about EXOGEN for me was that it didn’t really hinder my everyday life. I could use it whilst doing work for Elektrik3 on my laptop or just if I was on the sofa watching a movie.”

Olly explains how to use EXOGEN: “It takes literally 10 seconds to set up. You put on the strap, line up the hatch with your fracture site, apply the coupling gel, then put the transducer in place and press the start button. It requires just 20 minutes per day. You don’t really notice that you’re using it, which is part of the joy for me”.

Despite only breaking his leg in March, when we caught up with Olly in mid-July he was back in the gym training hard to build up the muscle he had lost.*

“Using EXOGEN has encouraged a massive callus to form, which was what I wanted for my bones to heal. Now that the callus is strong and the union is occurring the next few months will be about trying to run. I’ve been running quite a lot in the pool, in a floatation suit which allows me to mimic the motor pattern of running. So hopefully it will be less alien to me when I get back onto the grass.”

And what does the future hold for Olly? 

“The priority for me now is getting back to playing then hopefully getting my jersey back in the team and kicking on from there. I still feel like I have got lots of good years left in me, so I’ve no intention of hanging up my boots just yet!”

• Find out more about how EXOGEN works
• Make an enquiry about EXOGEN
• Connect with EXOGEN on Facebook
• Follow EXOGEN on Twitter

*Results may vary