'Baby steps' for Platt after ACL injury - Paterson

Matty Platt has featured 73 times for Notts County since joining them from Bradford City in the summer of 2024 [Shutterstock] Notts County's Matty Platt has been backed by boss Martin Paterson to "come back stronger" after his season was ended by an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. The 28-year-old, who is into the final months of his contract with the Magpies, damaged his knee in Notts' recent defeat by Chesterfield and is set to have surgery. While the club could only say that Platt is out for the "foreseeable future", partial tears or ruptures of an ACL typically require six to nine months on the sidelines.

Paterson said he "did fear the worst" when he saw Platt twist his knee when injured. "What we have to do now is support him," he told BBC Radio Nottingham. "We are here for him, we will support him every day and right now he just needs to focus on the small steps, and that is to get that knee right, have his surgery and keep making baby steps to return to play.

"People can come back stronger and play many, many years. " Paterson said he had offered Platt the chance to take time away from the club to come to terms with the injury, only to be turned down. "He has been in every day," he said.

"At the moment he wants to be around his team-mates and he is actually in very good spirits for someone that has had such a blow, and that's testament to his character. "