The scene behind Knights Stadium said it all. Concerned Northcote City teammates surrounded a stretcher-bound Josh Berrios, waiting for an ambulance with a shattered tibia. The seconds seemed like minutes, minutes like hours.
On the pitch, blink and you miss it. In the heat of battle, with Northcote desperately pushing for an equaliser at 1-2, a lunge for the ball led to a heavy collision. Play stopped as an air of concern blanketed the stadium.
By that point, Northcote had made all three substitutes. The incident was another cruel blow to the club still looking to win its first points of the season.
“With Josh, when things go bad, they go bad, don’t they?” Northcote assistant coach Dave Kalifatidis said after the game.
“We had a horrific run with injuries pre-season, so what [more] can you say?”
Last night ended on an extra sour note with our midfielder Josh Berrios suffering a broken tibia during the match…
Posted by Northcote City FC on Friday, 4 March 2016
For the former Knights junior, it was a gut-wrenching case of déjà vu at Somers Street.
A knee-injury innocuously sustained in a practice game at the end of the 2013 season – a breakout year in the VPL for Berrios under Andrew Marth – forced the midfielder to miss the entire 2014 NPL season.
It was a long road back for the teenager, who watched from the stands as his club broke a silverware drought with triumph in the Dockery Cup.
“I had a year off – pretty much just taking it easy: gym and ball work. Towards the end of the year I started training and dropping weight. Now I’m just training as hard as I can to get back on the field,” Berrios told the club at the time.
After recovering, the club reaffirmed its faith in Berrios with a new contract in 2015.
“I’ve been playing here all my life as a junior, so it’s great to be back with the boys to be playing here after a year off. It gets depressing watching the boys – I’m just happy to be back,” he said.
The Club can regretfully confirm that former Knights player Josh Berrios has broken his tibia while playing for…
Posted by Melbourne Knights FC on Friday, 4 March 2016
Making only a further four appearances for the Knights, he departed mid-season for Moreland Zebras in search of more game time, where he played his part in a promotion push that ended in a heartbreaking play-off defeat against Melbourne Victory.
In the off-season, Northcote came calling. Struggling to recapture its lustre following the exodus of the majority of its triumphant 2013 VPL squad – ending in the departure of Championship-winning manager Goran Lozanovski – the club was rebuilding under Alex Gymnopoulos, himself looking to launch a senior career after a successful tenure with the youth side – he won the U21 Championship the same year as Lozanovski guided the seniors to Grand Final victory.
At the same, Berrios was determined to re-establish himself in the top flight. It seemed like the perfect fit for player, coach and club.
“I just want to get back to the NPL. It’s more of a challenge and I’ll hopefully one day aspire to get to a bigger league,” the ambitious Berrios said via press release.
“Personally I just want to be a regular starting player, shine for the team and help them as much as I can.”
The rest, they say, is history. But history isn’t always kind to its subjects, and the now 22-year-old will again have to test his patience and resilience on the sidelines.
“Only hard work and commitment to get myself 100 per cent,” he told TCF in a brief message.
The incident is just another thorn in the side of a struggling Northcote, further hampered by the delay in arrival of key striker Calvin Mbarga from India.
At this point in time, it’s about trying to keep morale high and salvage the positives from a stuttering season; the emergence of two 18-year-olds in Aminta Makalovski and Todd Dekker – younger brother of Melbourne City and fellow Northcote junior, Wade – being a case in point.
“The boys put in a mighty effort. Were a very young side, we know we’re growing as a young team, we’re moving forward and we think we’re going to have the better of it sooner or later,” Kalifatidis said.
While the setting may seem like a player’s race long after the lights have turned off on a night game, Kalifatidis said there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for Berrios and the club: “Lady Luck will shine one day, and let’s hope it’s soon.”
Image: Steve Starek/Melbourne Knights FC